BP fought off two US demands on oil clean-up: report

UN-sanctioned Iran Guards wing offers to end US oil spill
Tehran (AFP) June 21, 2010 - The UN-sanctioned industrial wing of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards offered on Monday to help end the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, saying the disaster had become a "shame" for the United States. Brigadier General Rostam Qasemi, who heads the Guards' industrial wing Khatam al-Anbiya, said on Guards website Sepahnews.com that his organisation could consider sending its experts for ending the two-month old oil spill. "This is a shame and a disgrace for America, Britain and those who think they are the cradle of technology and superpowers in the world's industrial and economic fields," said Qasemi who himself is a target of US sanctions.

"Two months after the oil rig was destroyed, they are unable to contain the oil spill. It is a mark of crisis for Western technology and the arrogant experts from American and British companies have reached a dead end." He said Khatam al-Anbiya can send its experts to end the crisis if asked, boasting that "three decades of sanctions has led (the Guards) to acquiring the capability" to fight such disasters. "They can ask and after due consideration, we will send experts from Khatam al-Anbiya to end the major crisis and put an end to the environmental disaster," Qasemi said. "Despite the recent sanctions, the Guards will embark on its humane mission and take its exclusive and indigenous ability to the Gulf of Mexico."

Last month Iranian state firm National Iranian Drilling Company had also offered to help curb the massive oil spill. Khatam al-Anbiya, is one of 15 Iranian companies linked to the Guards which have been targeted in the latest round of UN sanctions imposed against Iran on June 9. It was created during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war to help rebuild the country, and has diversified over the years into companies dealing with mechanical engineering, energy, mining and defence. US outrage has mounted as the oil spill reached its two-month mark, impacting 59 miles (95 kilometres) of Gulf Coast shoreline, mainly in Louisiana but also in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. More than one-third of federal waters in the Gulf are closed to fishing because of the spill.

by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) June 21, 2010
Despite high-profile concessions to the White House over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP successfully pushed back against two key potentially costly US demands, a report said Monday.

After talks with US President Barack Obama last week, BP announced it was establishing a 20-billion-dollar compensation fund and putting up an additional 100 million dollars for laid-off oil workers.

But it refused to give the White House a blank check for paying for the clean-up of the blighted Gulf region, the Wall Street Journal said.

Instead the British energy company successfully brushed off US demands to pay to improve the Gulf region beyond the condition it was in before the oil slick was unleashed by an April explosion on a BP-leased rig off Louisiana.

And the 100-million-dollar sweetener for laid off oil workers is just a drop in the ocean, with drilling industry experts calculating rig workers are losing as much as 300 million dollars a month, the Journal said.

BP argued a six-month freeze on deepwater drilling off US shores imposed in the wake of the spill was a policy decision by the US administration, which they were not liable for.

"You won't find many lawyers who will say when the government imposes a moratorium it's the company's obligation to help the workers impacted," a BP negotiator told the business daily.

The final deal, hammered out first in five days of talks between the two sides, and then during the White House meeting, "was structured to limit the company's exposure to such claims," the Journal wrote.

It added that BP also refused to foot the bill to meet Obama's vow to restore the blighted Louisiana marshes and waterways, ravaged by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, to beyond the state they were before the oil spill.

The US administration has long had plans to restore the region, but it remains to be seen how they will be paid for.

Both sides said last week's meeting was businesslike, and the White House insists it wrested important concessions from BP.

"A blank check was never in the cards," one administration official who attended the talks told the Journal.

But he stressed the final deal "went a very long way."

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS
Solar Energy Solutions
Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ...

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

BP chief plans trip to Russia to offer reassurances: report
London (AFP) June 21, 2010
BP chief executive Tony Hayward is planning a trip to Russia to reassure President Dmitry Medvedev the oil giant is not on the verge of collapse, the Financial Times reported Monday. Hayward will meet with Medvedev and tell him that BP can meet the cost of the liabilities from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, said the paper, without citing a source. The timing of the trip has not been finalised ... read more

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement