Just in passing.

[Ken]

Seeing how often President Obama is criticized there is, as most Britains are aware, another side to the coin.

Obama has pressurised BP into depositing £13.5 billion pounds into a fund to settle compensation for the Gulf of mexico oil spill.

This surely has to be a major victory for your President, especially as both the firms whose equipment failed so calamitously were not British but American. I wonder if he has explained this to the American people.

I accept that BP must take its share of blame as the overall contractor but the company doing the actual drilling - Transocean - is an American company under contract to BP. Of the staff on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, only 7 were BP employees. 79 of the others worked for Transocean and the rest were from other contracted companies. Transocean has now attempted to limit its liabilities for this episode to a mere $27 million whilst claiming more than $430 million in insurance payouts related to the disaster. I am aware that the BP manager in charge of the rig operations was probably not as experienced as might have neen necessary. Also the Mineral Management Service had, allegedly, exempted BP from the need to carry out a detailed environmental study after concluding 'That a massive oil spill is unlikely.'

The blowout preventer which failed was made and supplied by yet another American firm, Cameron International. A congressional hearing has been told, already, that Transocean had been carrying out the drilling, and owned the rig and the crucial piece of safety equipment, the blowout preventer supplied by cameron International.

All in all guys, I would suggest that your president has done a magnificent job of protecting America's interests (and of buck passing)

Ken.

[Adam]

I agree Big K 100%.It's a mess but in my humble opinion I think it would of been better if it was done quietly and not gloating to the public. Why is it politicians blab about stuff they should settle quietly and keep secrets about stuff that should be open for public opinion? I just think BP is very sorry for this and the chap from BP and the president should of quietly settled this . However the money to be distributed by a third party is an excellent idea.

[dieseleverything]

Obama is an asshole and the media is not covering this as they should....

Three days after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, the Dutch government offered to help. It was willing to provide ships outfitted with oil-skimming booms, and it proposed a plan for building sand barriers to protect sensitive marshlands. The response from the Obama administration and BP, which are coordinating the cleanup: “The embassy got a nice letter from the administration that said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’” said Geert Visser, consul general for the Netherlands in Houston.

[Ken]

I agree Big K 100%.It's a mess but in my humble opinion I think it would of been better if it was done quietly and not gloating to the public. Why is it politicians blab about stuff they should settle quietly and keep secrets about stuff that should be open for public opinion? I just think BP is very sorry for this and the chap from BP and the president should of quietly settled this . However the money to be distributed by a third party is an excellent idea.

The problem is that politicians just love to hear the sound of their own voices, Adam.

I watched the Congressional hearing - man, that was not a hearing that was just an out and out witch hunt. At no time did I hear any attempt to actually find out any of the salient facts of the disaster in relation to BP's accountability. I have a feeling the BP CEO was under direct orders from somewhere (Brit government?) to say nothing. Were I in his shoes I would have made much more out of who was doing the drilling, who owned the rig, who manned the rig, who made and who fitted the blow-out preventer etc, etc. I think I am right in saying that of the last 39 deepwater bore failures, 18 were similar to the one in question - only the scale was different. Certainly the CEO's company has to accept a fair element of the blame but, as far as I am concerned, only a fair element. If the two American companies so deeply and inextricably involved had also stumped up £13.5 billion each I would have considered that a fair and equitable acceptance of joint responsibility.

Ken.

[Adam]

Ken and Diesel;

I hear your points. Who was at fault and what happened I wish we can get to the bottom of it. This is extremely dangerous buisness drilling so deep into the earth for oil. We must develop alternete fuels asap!