It's almost impossible to feel sorry for BP as it wrestles with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and tries to defend itself from the bloodlust of US politicians and media. Even before the current catastrophe, the company had an appalling track record in the US, what with the Texas City oil refinery explosion a few years back and the shambolic deployment in the Gulf of the $1 billion "Thunder Horse" rig , which promptly capsized like some modern day Vasa.
Still, the persecution of the company, led by a plainly panicking Barack Obama, is reaching absurd levels. By any reasonable measure, BP is far from the only party responsible for the disaster. Ever hear of TransOcean? It's a US owned company (although Swiss resident for tax purposes) that both owns and operates the rig where the explosion took place. You'd think it might bear some responsibility, but it's getting a free ride in Congress. Or what about Anadarko Petroleum, an American company which owns 25% of the venture (BP has 65%)? It's just announced a dividend payment, unlike BP, which has suspended its own payouts until at least the end of the year. It's even seen fit to start slagging off BP for its management of the project. Or there's good old Halliburton, which installed the failed safety equipment on the wellhead (though, to be fair to them -- as much as that pains me -- they do appear to have tried to warn BP that the safety measures the latter was prepared to pay for were inadequate).
It's not altogether surprising that British politicians and media are starting to kick back against US attempts to portray BP (or British Petroleum, as nobody had called it for twelve years until the well blew up) as the only villain. The foreign press is starting to notice, too -- see this piece from the Toronto Globe and Mail. The Tories are taking the lead here, typified by this quote from Lord Tebbit, in full Chingford skinhead mode:
“The whole might of American wealth and technology is displayed as utterly unable to deal with the disastrous spill,” he said, “so what more natural than a crude, bigoted, xenophobic display of partisan, political, presidential petulance against a multinational company?”
You go, girl. (Makes you wonder, though, who the old-line Tories like Tebbit actually like at the moment. Europe? Never. America? Nope. Persons of darker complexion from the former Empire? Probably not.)
It's surprising that nobody has thought of reminding the Americans ever so gently of the rather different approach they took when one of their own multinationals, Union Carbide, unleashed all kinds of hell at Bhopal three decades ago. People died there, not just gulls. Probably wouldn't do any good though. BP is going to have to take its lumps, and we're just going to have to watch. And while watching the Congressional hearings yesterday, I couldn't help thinking that the company is not being well served by the appearance of its CEO, Tony Hayward. His default expression -- in fact, almost his only expression -- is a supercilious smirk, which must be irking the Congresspersons no end. Still, in the unlikely event that someone decides to make a blockbuster movie about all this, Michael Sheen basically casts himself in the lead role.
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