BP Announces New Safety Policing Unit

BP’s new CEO Bob Dudley is not wasting any time to shuffle the company’s upper echelon in an effort to perform some major damage control after this summer’s Gulf Coast disaster. 

Just two days before he officially replaces Tony Hayward, Dudley announced the installment of a new unit whose sole responsibility will be to police the safety practices of the company. The new division will be headed by Mark Bly who also led the investigation into what caused the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

“This is a deeply challenging time for BP. The Macondo incident was a tragedy that claimed the lives of 11 people, caused injury to many others and had a widespread environmental impact,” Dudley said in a message to BP staff.

“Our response to the incident needs to go beyond deepwater drilling. There are lessons for us relating to the way we operate, the way we organize our company and the way we manage risk.”

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8,084 Square Miles Reopened In Gulf

The NOAA announced in a bulletin, Tuesday, that they plan to reopen 8,084 square miles of Gulf of Mexico waters previously closed to fishing for concerns due to the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

In the release, the NOAA stated their rationale on a number of criteria, including the fact that no oil or sheen has been observed in the area since July 21st, and trajectory models show low risk for future exposure to oil.

In addition, the federal agency conducted extensive sensory testing as well as chemical analysis of 92 finfish, which all tested “well below levels of concern for oil.”

31,801 square miles - 13% of Gulf of Mexico exclusive economic zone - remain closed to fishing because of safety and public health concerns.

BP Crews Resume Drilling Relief Well

According to a press release issued by petroleum mogul BP on Monday, drilling of a relief well essential to finally plugging the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico was re-started today at 1:40 pm CDT. The Macondo well malfunction was responsible for a nearly three month oil leak which bled nearly five million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf, severely crippling the Gulf Coast’s oil, tourism, and fishing industries, which together compose the backbone of the region’s economy.

The report tells that BP has successfully installed a locking sleeve onto the well’s casing hangar, and has resumed drilling the new well, which is now about fifty feet from intercepting the Macondo well’s annulus.

Once drilling operations have intercepted this annulus, a space between the casing pipe and the earth, teams will pump heavy drilling mud and cement into the annulus, essentially completing the isolation of the well.

Following BP’s press release, National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen released a statement regarding the procedure:

“After extensive consultation between BP engineers and the federal science team, as well as reviewing data collected from measurements I authorized Friday, the Development Driller III today began the final steps towards the completion of the relief well that will intercept the Macondo 252 well and perform the bottom kill procedure.

This accelerated progress was possible after several discussions between BP and the federal scientists and engineers, leading to the installation of a lock-down device over the weekend, which resulted in the necessary conditions to commence the finalization of the relief well. I will continue to provide updates on the progress of the relief well, the final step that will ensure the well is fully and finally killed, as necessary.”

Gulf Sea Turtle Conservation Efforts Enter New Phase

The Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Command issued a release Thursday morning, detailing a new phase in sea turtle conservation efforts that were launched in response to environmental damage caused by the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Recent scientific reports show that responders are finding fewer oiled turtles, and are ready to begin releasing rehabilitated turtles back into the wild, while continuing rigorous ecological monitoring.

“We haven’t discovered any turtles that require veterinary care and rehabilitation since early August, so we are implementing the next phase of our turtle response activities while continuing the efforts of the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network,” said NOAA Fisheries National Sea Turtle Coordinator Barbara Schroeder.

The next phase of the sea turtle conservation effort, the Natural Resource Damage Assessment phase, will commence in two to three weeks and will consist of conducting surveys on turtle found in convergence areas where ocean currents meet up with Sargassum (dense marine algae) habitats, according to the report.

Since August 30, 1,086 sea turtles have been collected from an area stretching from Apalachicola, Fla. to the Texas/Louisiana border. Rehabilitation centers have also released more than 14,000 hatchling turtles gathered from endangered nesting areas to Florida’s east coast.

Feds Bill BP Another $128.5 Million

The administration sent its sixth bill to oil conglomerate BP Wednesday, this time for $128.5 million in costs associated with the response and cleanup of the oil spill that leaked nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico over the summer, devastating the Gulf Coast’s tourism, fishing, and petroleum industries.

Of the six bills sent collectively to BP, Transocean, MOEX, and Andarko, BP has paid the first five in full. However, BP released a report Wednesday morning which claims that it may not feel as fully responsible for the spill as it has in the past.

To date, BP has reimbursed the administration for $389.9 million in spill related costs.