A long-awaited trial over the biggest US offshore oil spill
has begun, with governments, businesses and individuals
blaming BP Plc mostly for the 2010 disaster that killed 11
rig workers and spilled 4 million barrels of oil into the
Gulf of Mexico.
Staff at BP petrol terminals around the country have
undergone extra training to ensure an incident where petrol
was contaminated with water at a terminal in Dunedin last
month is not repeated.
BP Plc will pay $US4.5 billion ($NZ5.5bn) in penalties and
plead guilty to felony misconduct in the Deepwater Horizon
disaster, which killed 11 workers and caused the worst US
offshore oil spill ever.
The Employment Relations Authority has directed the owner of
the Gore BP station and a former employee to undergo
mediation after harassment and redundancy grievances were
raised by the former employee.
BP PLC has reached an estimated $US7.8 billion ($NZ9.4b) deal
with plaintiffs suing over the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico
oil spill, the company said, but the oil giant still faces
claims by the U.S. government, Gulf states and drilling
partners.
BP has passed its final hurdle to returning to the deep
waters of the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, receiving its
first permit to drill a new well since its role in the
largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
There is a sense that American anger with the British oil
company BP is behind the campaign being promoted by some
senators and congressmen to try to link the company with the
release from imprisonment of one of the convicted Lockerbie
bombers, the Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.
The temporary cap on BP's ruptured oil well can stay closed
even if ships evacuate the Gulf of Mexico during a tropical
storm, the federal government's oil spill chief said on
Thursday.
BP finally choked off the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico
on Thursday - 85 days and up to 184 million gallons after the
crisis unfolded - then began a tense 48 hours of watching to
see whether the capped-off well would hold or blow a new
leak.
Oil giant BP started shutting off the flow of oil through a
new cap on its busted well, possibly coming within hours of
stopping the gusher for the first time since April.
