NIH Receives $10 Million From BP To Research Health Issues

British oil mogul BP, the corporation responsible for the months-long oil spill disaster that has plagued the Gulf Coast since the Deepwater Horizon rig’s explosion on April 20th, announced Tuesday that it will be sending $10 million to the National Institutes of Health to support studies on acute and long term health issues associated with the oil spill.

The funding will go to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, or GRI, a ten year, $500 million research program established by BP and conducted by the NIH, “to better understand and mitigate the environmental and potential health effects of the Gulf spill.”

“BP, in collaboration with the Unified Command, provided task specific training, supplied personal protective equipment and conducted extensive environmental and worker monitoring to protect the health of response workers involved in the cleanup,” said Bob Dudley, CEO of BP’s Gulf Coast Restoration Organization. “But there is much still to be learned from this incident, and BP is providing this funding to NIH because it is well positioned to assure the quality and the integrity of the independent research process.”

Blowout Preventer Removal Suspended Due To Weather

National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen told reporters in a conference call Monday that weather concerns in the Gulf of Mexico are forcing the joint command to suspend operations to remove the stacking cap and blowout preventer from the failed Deepwater Horizon Macondo well.

“We’re only good at to three to five days.  So I am predicting three days at this point.  As I have been (want) to do in the past, I don’t use any hard schedules that should be laid out at this time.  We should have been ready to go right after Labor Day.  But obviously this will move that,” said Allen.

The administration’s point man on the BP-Deepwater Horizon spill response told the media that the weather is not related to tropical depressions in the Atlantic, but local storms in the Gulf.

Retrieval of the blowout preventer remains a crucial part of the federal investigation into what caused the spill.

Allen Directs BP To Remove Capping Stack, BOP From Macondo Well

From the Deepwater Horizon Response Joint Command:

“WASHINGTON - National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen today authorized BP to terminate the fishing procedure and begin the removal of the capping stack followed by the BOP, including the specific conditions required for the removals to take place.”

Officials contend that removal of the Macondo well’s failed blowout preventer will assist in the administration’s investigation into the cause of the oil spill that leaked an estimated 4.9 millions barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico from April 20th until the capping stack sealed the leak in mid-July.

The directive issued by Retired Coast Guard Admiral Allen requires that BP cooperate with the Joint Investigation Team and the Department of Justice Criminal Investigation Evidence Recovery Team throughout the removal process.

Oil Spill Response To Become More Locally Supervised

According to federal on-scene coordinator Rear Admiral Paul Zukunft, federal officials will be meeting with Gulf Coast officials, including Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R), Friday to discuss their long term transition plan from acute spill response to Gulf restoration. In working to define “when clean is clean,” Zukunft emphasized that; “we are not there yet. But the important thing is, we are at the table at the local level where it matters, and we’re working with and through each of the parish officials.”

BP Receives Another Bill From Feds

According to the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint information Center, the administration sent a fifth bill to petroleum mogul BP Wednesday to reimburse the government for response costs tied to the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

This latest bill - totaling almost $168 million - nearly matches the $222 million already demanded in the first four bills, all of which BP has paid in full. 

As the responsible party, BP will continue to receive invoices from the administration for all costs associated with the response to the months-old oil leaked that has wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast’s fishing, tourism, and oil industries.