BP to stop handling most Gulf claims

BP has picked today as the deadline for accepting claims from people and businesses affected by the Gulf oil disaster.

After that, the oil giant will direct people to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, led by attorney Kenneth Feinberg.


"Effective August 23, GCCF will be the only authorized organization managing business and individual claims related to the Deepwater Horizon Incident," the British energy giant said in a statement.

Feinberg is charged with independently administering the $20 billion escrow account established by BP to compensate for damage caused by the Gulf disaster. He will hold a public meeting in Houma, Louisiana, at 10 a.m. (11 p.m ET).

BP, which said it has paid $368 million in claims so far, will continue to handle claims by government entities.

On Tuesday, a major environmental watchdog group called for more stringent testing of seafood from the Gulf of Mexico, where the fall shrimping season began this week. The state of Alabama also reopened coastal waters to fishing for the first time since the disaster.

The National Resources Defense Council released a statement saying it sent letters to the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, co-signed by almost two dozen Gulf coast groups. The letters asked the government agencies to:

-- Ensure that there is comprehensive monitoring of seafood contamination.
-- Ensure public disclosure of all seafood monitoring data and methods.
-- Ensure that fishery re-opening criteria protect the most vulnerable populations, including children, pregnant women and subsistence fishing communities.

"With the opening of shrimping season and near-daily reopening of fishing areas, seafood safety is a major issue right now," Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist with the National Resources Defense Council, said in the statement. "The government needs to show it is putting strong safety criteria and testing standards in place to ensure that the seafood from the Gulf will be safe to eat in the months and years to come."

Government officials, including Vice President Joe Biden and Steve Murawski, NOAA's chief scientist for fisheries, have said in recent weeks that waters closed to fishermen after the worst oil spill in U.S. history would be reopened when officials guarantee that seafood would pass tests for safety and edibility.

The oil spill has hampered the seafood business across the Gulf as federal and state authorities put much of its waters off-limits amid safety concerns. With the once-gushing well capped temporarily for more than a month now, NOAA and the Gulf states have started lifting those restrictions.

Deborah Long, a spokeswoman for the Southern Shrimp Alliance, said it will probably take days to assess what impact the spill has had on the Gulf catch. And while some shrimpers are eager to get back out, many are still working for the well's owner, BP, which has hired boats to skim oil off the surface and lay protective booms along the shorelines.

Two reports published Tuesday express concern about the lingering effects of oil spilled from the ruptured BP well.

A team from Georgia Sea Grant and the University of Georgia released a report that estimates that 70 to 79 percent of the oil that gushed from the well "has not been recovered and remains a threat to the ecosystem," the university said in a release.

Meanwhile, researchers at the University of South Florida have concluded that oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill may have settled to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico farther east than previously suspected -- and at levels toxic to marine life.  See Full Story






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Hurricane Alex Disrupting Cleanup of BP Oil-Spill

 Tropical Storm Alex , now is a hurricane and is bearing down on the Gulf of Mexico.

There is tremendous concern regarding the effect the storm could have on the oil spill's cleanup efforts. Also, as is always the case when natural disasters hit, there are huge worries about potential damage and loss of life.                     







The Gulf oil spill disaster has reached day 72, with environmental and economic costs to tourism, wildlife, fishing and other industries still mounting and the future of BP, the London-based energy giant, far from clear.

Local residents are braced for heavy rains and flooding from Alex, which strengthened into a hurricane late on Tuesday. The storm was on track to make landfall near the Texas-Mexico border late on Wednesday or early Thursday.
 
 With high winds, large waves and flooding rains on the way, controlled burns of oil on the ocean, flights spraying dispersant chemicals and booming operations are on hold for now, officials said.




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Frustrated by boycott, station owners want BP help

Tension is mounting between BP and the neighborhood retailers that sell its gasoline.

As more Americans shun BP gasoline as a form of protest over the Gulf oil spill, station owners are insisting BP do more to help them convince motorists that such boycotts mostly hurt independently owned businesses, not the British oil giant.

To win back customers, they'd like the company's help in reducing the price at the pump.  

BP owns just a fraction of the more than 11,000 stations across the U.S. that sell its fuel under the BP, Amoco and ARCO banners. Most are owned by local businessmen whose primary connection to the oil company is the logo and a contract to buy gasoline.

In recent weeks, some station owners from Georgia to Illinois say sales have declined as much as 10 percent to 40 percent. 

Station owners and BP gas distributors told BP officials last week they need a break on the cost of the gas they buy, and they want help paying for more advertising aimed at motorists, according to John Kleine, executive director of the independent BP Amoco Marketers Association.

The station owners, who earn more from sales of soda and snacks than on gasoline, also want more frequent meetings with BP officials.

"They have got to be more competitive on their fuel costs to the retailers so we can be competitive on the street ... and bring back customers that we've lost," says Bob Juckniess, who has seen sales drop 20 percent at some of his 10 BP-branded stations in the Chicago area.

Owners and distributors put forth their demands at a meeting in Chicago with BP marketing officials. BP's reply could come as early as this week, says Kleine, whose group represents hundreds of distributors.

Station owners are locked into contracts that can last seven to 10 years in some cases. So, switching to a competing brand if BP refuses to help may not be an option.

BP spokesman Scott Dean declined to offer specifics about the discussions when contacted by The Associated Press.

"BP is in daily contact with its independent distributors and franchisees and helping them manage the impacts the oil spill is having on their businesses," he said.

Gasoline retailing trade groups say the boycott's impact isn't only evident in southern states such as Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, but also in places further from the spill like southern Pennsylvania.

Jim Smith, president and CEO of the Florida Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association, said BP has given some station owners a one-cent-per-gallon discount, which "doesn't amount to much."

Kleine told AP the discount appears   Read Full AP story





 



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BP Chief’s Appearance at Yacht Race Is Criticized

 
Just when it seemed Gulf residents couldn't get any more outraged about the massive oil spill fouling their coastline, word came Saturday that BP's CEO was taking time off to attend a glitzy yacht race in England.



BP officials on Saturday scrambled yet again to respond to another public relations mess when their embattled chief executive, Tony Hayward, spent the day off the coast of England watching his yacht compete in one of the world’s largest races.

Two days after Mr. Hayward angered lawmakers on Capitol Hill with his refusal to provide details during testimony about the worst offshore oil spill in United States history, and one day after BP’s chairman said the chief executive would not be as involved in daily operations in the gulf, Mr. Hayward sparked new controversy from afar.
“He is having some rare private time with his son,” a BP spokeswoman, Sheila Williams, said in a telephone interview on Saturday.
But Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, who taped an interview for ABC’s “This Week,” called Mr. Hayward’s attendance at the race “part of a long line of PR gaffes and mistakes” that he has made.
“To quote Tony Hayward, he’s got his life back,” Mr. Emanuel said.
On May 31, six weeks after the spill began, Mr. Hayward uttered “I’d like my life back,” a comment that struck many in the gulf region as insensitive, and for which he eventually apologized.
On Saturday, Senator Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama, called Mr. Hayward’s yacht outing the “height of arrogance,” in an interview with Fox News.
“I can tell you that yacht ought to be here skimming and cleaning up a lot of the oil,” Mr. Shelby said. “He ought to be down here seeing what is really going on. Not in a cocoon somewhere.” 
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BP Officials Arrive at White House- Watch Video

 President Obama announced Wednesday that energy giant BP will finance a $20 billion fund to compensate people whose livelihoods have been damaged by the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the giant British company's chairman apologized to America for the worst spill in U.S. history.

Obama said BP has voluntarily agreed to set aside $100 million to help oil workers displaced since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20 and killed 11 people.

Kenneth Feinberg, a lawyer overseeing executive pay issues for the White House, will be in charge of the compensation fund. A three-person panel will mediate any disputes.

Feinberg oversaw payments to 9/11 victims for the federal government.   

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Obama's Remarks To Nation On Oil Spill

President Obama's remarks to the nation on the BP oil spill:

 Good evening. As we speak, our nation faces a multitude of challenges. At home, our top priority is to recover and rebuild from a recession that has touched the lives of nearly every American. Abroad, our brave men and women in uniform are taking the fight to al Qaeda wherever it exists. And tonight, I've returned from a trip to the Gulf Coast to speak with you about the battle we're waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens.
On April 20th, an explosion ripped through BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, about 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana. Eleven workers lost their lives. Seventeen others were injured. And soon, nearly a mile beneath the surface of the ocean, oil began spewing into the water.
Because there has never been a leak this size at this depth, stopping it has tested the limits of human technology. That is why just after the rig sank, I assembled a team of our nation's best scientists and engineers to tackle this challenge — a team led by Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and our nation's Secretary of Energy. Scientists at our national labs and experts from academia and other oil companies have also provided ideas and advice.
As a result of these efforts, we have directed BP to mobilize additional equipment and technology. In the coming weeks and days, these efforts should capture up to 90% of the oil leaking out of the well. This is until the company finishes drilling a relief well later in the summer that is expected to stop the leak completely.
Already, this oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced. And unlike an earthquake or a hurricane, it is not a single event that does its damage in a matter of minutes or days. The millions of gallons of oil that have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico are more like an epidemic, one that we will be fighting for months and even years.
But make no mistake: We will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long it takes. We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. And we will do whatever's necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy.

Tonight I'd like to lay out for you what our battle plan is going forward: what we're doing to clean up the oil, what we're doing to help our neighbors in the Gulf, and what we're doing to make sure that a catastrophe like this never happens again.

First, the cleanup. From the very beginning of this crisis, the federal government has been in charge of the largest environmental cleanup effort in our nation's history — an effort led by Admiral Thad Allen, who has almost 40 years of experience responding to disasters. We now have nearly 30,000 personnel who are working across four states to contain and cleanup the oil. Thousands of ships and other vessels are responding in the Gulf. And I have authorized the deployment of over 17,000 National Guard members along the coast. These servicemen and women are ready to help stop the oil from coming ashore, they're ready to clean beaches, train response workers, or even help with processing claims — and I urge the governors in the affected states to activate these troops as soon as possible.
Because of our efforts, millions of gallons of oil have already been removed from the water through burning, skimming and other collection methods. Over five and a half million feet of boom has been laid across the water to block and absorb the approaching oil. We have approved the construction of new barrier islands in Louisiana to try and stop the oil before it reaches the shore, and we are working with Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida to implement creative approaches to their unique coastlines.

 Click  To Read Entire Plan

Obama to address nation on Gulf spill, demand BP damage fund

 President Obama plans to address the nation this week about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the worst in U.S. history. White House adviser David Axelrod told NBC's Meet the Press Sunday that Obama will discuss the disaster after he returns from a visit to the region Monday and Tuesday, reports the Associated Press. "The president will announce several steps" for handling the spill's fallout, Alexrod said. Scientists estimate the Gulf spill has spewed anywhere from 40 million gallons of oil to more than 100 million gallons since the Deepwater Horizon rig, run by energy giant BP, exploded April 20.
Axelrod said Obama, who meets Wednesday at the White House with BP executives, will demand the company fund an escrow account that a third-party panel will administer to distribute damage claims from individuals and businesses hurt by the Gulf spill, reports POLITICO.

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Bp Spills Coffee, Watch Video

This is what happens when BP spills coffee Share

BP plans to suspend shareholder dividend amid oil spill

BP is expected to announce next week that it will suspend its shareholder dividend, the BBC has learned.No announcement is expected to be made until after talks between BP and US President Barack Obama on Wednesday. BBC business editor Robert Peston says that BP directors are to meet on Monday to discuss the payments.BP has been under intense pressure from the US government, which wants BP to use the money to pay for the Gulf of Mexico clean-up.Meanwhile, BP's shares closed up 7.2%, recovering losses suffered on Thursday."In practice, Monday's discussion at newly instituted weekly meetings of the board will be about when to suspend the payments, how long to suspend the payments, and what to do with the billions of dollars that would be saved and not paid to shareholders," our business editor says.
Dividend options Pensions expert and former government adviser Ros Altmann told the BBC that if the company did cut its dividend it would be "a blow", but should not be taken "out of proportion".
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