What did they know?
It appears that some highly-placed BP executives had some sense of trouble to come, and talked. Continue reading
One disaster at a time
Robert Dudley is an American oil man who became an employee of British Petroleum, oops, BP, when it
absorbed Amoco, the former Standard Oil of Indiana, in 1998. Continue reading
The reality of Risk
BP investors will now lose their dividends for an undetermined period. The reality of risk is now apparent, and for the first time in history, a maritime-related event has had repercussions in the homes of, to use a current expression, “small people”. Continue reading
Reflections of a self-styled legal eagle
Business, in many of its aspects, is occasionally a game of chance. Bad, unexpected things can happen. Failure punishes the unlucky, or unwary, or both. Continue reading
Posidonia Reflections: Change that will knock your socks off
claytoonjpgHaving spent the last few weeks in Greece, cradle of democracy, the shipping industry, philosophy and fiscal irresponsibility, I have reconnected to my favorite ancient Greek philosopher, Herakleitos (Heraclitus to the untrendy). Continue reading
Changes in climate
I’m taking a few days off before the stress of Posidonia, the biennale of shipping staged for the past 40-some years by Greece. Continue reading
Deepwater Horzion: Should we blame the engineers?
From the Titanic to the current Deepwater Horizon crisis, the nagging question is: could the disaster have been averted, and if so, how? Continue reading
Risk Management 101
Dr. Quenton R. Dokken, Executive Director of the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, which now celebrates its twentieth anniversary, demonstrates what the petroleum industry can do when it heeds the “better angels of its nature”. Continue reading
Further thoughts on deepwater horizon
The Gulf of Mexico drill rig disaster is casting a growing shadow on the discipline, if that’s the correct word, of oil spill prevention, cleanup and response.
Not since the EXXON VALDEZ incident, more than two decades ago, has so much attention been focussed on “measures taken” and “lessons learned.”
There will, we can be sure, be many lessons learned.. One is that the marine environment and its protection is of great political and economic significance.
When a few friends and I formed the North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA), three years ago, it was with an awareness that the private sector, the government, engineers and scientists still had to reckon with the peculiar nature of oil spills, particularly those involving large quantities of the stuff.
What we have before us… Continue reading
Deepwater Horizon sinking
The massive explosion that engulfed and sank the Drill Rig DEEPWATER HORIZON will have an even more massive political impact. Continue reading
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