British Tories, here's a hankie...sorry for the hurt feelings...

[kat_chan]

...or not.

Really, are you saying that the anger over here with regards to what your corporation is doing to our environment (and it could be pretty catastrophic if a tropical system comes through the Gulf, sucks up oil droplets due to the dispersants making it lighter and easier to be sucked into the atmosphere, and drops it all over the

Comments

[hysteria74]

I think the argument from some of the British establishment is centred on the fact that the oilrig *doesn't* belong to BP, it belongs to a US company called Transocean. They built and ran the oil rig and BP leased the use of the rig and oil from them. Ergo if BP didn't build it and simply leased it, how is it solely *it's* responsability to pay for the clean up? Transocean has managed to walk away from this unschathed. That seems very unfair.

[kat_chan]

Actually, BP contracted Transocean to build and operate the rig for them. But BP holds the drilling lease, and they get the oil and the profits from it. And on the day of the accident there were BP managers at the rig being told by Transocean personnel that there were problems with the flow, that they wanted to try and throttle it so that they could avoid a blowout, and the BP managers refused and told them that they'd pull the contract from Transocean if Transocean didn't keep the production up.

It's good to know that BP is lying to you all as earnestly as they're lying to us. It's just that over here we get to hear from all parties, and not just the one.

[jajy1979]

Except under International Financial Reporting Standards that creates a liability and an asset on the balance sheet of BP for which they are responsible for the operation and use of, as well as any accrued liabilities and future profits from.

Further the lease for drilling, as Kat_chan is pointing out, is in the hands of BP which creates the ultimate liability.

This is the same argument made about the fact that airlines technically lease most of their jets under operating leases rather than capital (financial) leases which means they don't have to sit on their balance sheets and thus they aren't "liable". Same bullshit.