Ex-BP official warns of disaster in Europe

[highplainsdem]

Source: AP via eTaiwan News

Ex-BP official warns of disaster in Europe

By EILEEN SHIM
Associated Press
2010-06-09 05:31 AM



The European Union should take a cue from the British Petroleum oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, a former BP contractor said Tuesday.

The official, Kenneth Abbott, said he believed BP's operations in the North Sea are not properly regulated and that "BP lacks critical safety documents that every major operation needs."

Abbott used to work for BP as a manager for Atlantis, a problematic BP platform in the Gulf.

-snip-

BP declined to specifically address Abbott's criticism, but said that in general, "the company's safety performance across our North Sea business is good and improving."

-snip-

Read more: http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1282123&lang=eng_news

[dipsydoodle]

1. The biggest catasrophe over here

was Piper Alpha.

Who owned and operated it ? Occidental. And Occidental is based in which country ?

[FLPanhandle]

2. If the companies safety performance is good then why does it need to be improved?

If it needs to be improved then it's not good enough.

[madrchsod]

3. safety procedures and hardware have to be constantly updated

there is no such thing as a fail safe operation or situation.

[wordpix]

4. dittoes for those ineffective oil booms and bamboo stakes that no one monitors

[Nihil]

5. Ex-company man throws mud at people who fired him.

> He said he was fired in February, 2009, after questioning BP's commitment
> to safety measures.

Hmmm ...

[JoeyT]

6. So you think BP is concerned with safety?

There are eleven dead people, countless dead animals, and a few million acres of poisonous water that would disagree.

[Nihil]

7. Only as much as any other such company ...

... i.e., with a certain degree of lip-service until caught out by an incident.

My point was that a person who was fired by BP and - after the company has
f*cked up publicly enough to get the lawyers salivating - claims that the reason
he was fired was "safety concerns" and who is involved in a further legal action
against BP (again started after this event) might not be any more reliable and
impartial a source than, say, the CEO of BP ...

:shrug: