BP Prepared for Spill 10 Times Gulf Disaster, Permit Plans Say

[charlesg]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-31/bp-prepared-for-spill-10-times-gulf-disaster-permit-plans-say.html

BP Prepared for Spill 10 Times Gulf Disaster, Permit Plans Say
May 31, 2010, 9:50 AM EDT
By Alison Fitzgerald

May 31 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc said in permit applications for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico that it was prepared to handle an oil spill more than ten times larger than the one now spewing crude into the waters off the southern United States. “Proper execution of the procedures detailed in this manual will help to limit environmental and ecological damage to sensitive areas as well as minimizing loss or damage to BP facilities in the event of a petroleum release,” the company said in its oil-spill response plan, filed with the U.S. Minerals Management Service in 2008. The company listed as its worst-case scenario a blowout in an exploratory well 57 miles west of the disaster, in a valley on the seafloor known as Mississippi Canyon. It’s about 33 miles off the coast of Louisiana. Such a blowout could have spewed 250,000 barrels a day, according to the 582-page plan.

The representations show that BP overestimated its ability to control an oil spill in waters where it’s the biggest player in a Gulf energy extraction industry worth $52 billion a year, said Bob Deans, a spokesman with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington. “BP has obviously overpromised and underdelivered,” Deans said. “They told us they had a plan that could deal with the consequences of a worst-case scenario. They don’t.” The plan was posted on the Minerals Management Service website and was incorporated by reference into BP’s application with the agency for a permit to drill the Macondo well. The company said in that application that a worst-case blowout from that well could spew at most 162,000 barrels a day.

“Clearly we do have an oil-spill response plan in place, it was an integral part of our permitting with the MMS and it was specifically agreed with and approved by the MMS,” BP spokesman David Nicholas said in an e-mailed statement. “It sets out the actions, considerations, plans and steps that will be used in the case of an oil spill, and it is this plan that has been in action in response.” Officials with the Minerals Management Service didn’t respond to e-mails and calls seeking comment about the oil-spill clean-up plan...

BP’s plan foresaw the possibility of a prolonged spill. “If the spill went unabated, shoreline impact would depend upon existing environmental conditions,” according to the plan. The chance of oil reaching the shoreline within 30 days was estimated at 3 percent or less for most coastal areas, except Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish, which the company said had a 21 percent chance of seeing oil onshore within 30 days...

[LiberalFighter]

1. Did the parishes impacted had the awareness of the impact?

And involved in any input?