Clay Maitland

On a quest for quality in shipping

A troubled political legacy

One of the oldest sayings in the US Congress is: "There is no such thing as a good regulatory outcome". Continue reading

Thinking constructively about oil spill prevention

Since April 20, the oil and tanker industries have been confronted with the realization that the rules of risk management, and the framework of maritime liability, are being altered in many ways. Continue reading

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
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