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Can BP survive?

Arrow said:
We'll see. The BP disaster is different from the Exxon spill. The Exxon spill occurred in a remote area of the world. Not many people were personally touched by it. The current BP oil gusher has occurred in an area where millions live - my self included - and where the economic damage to other peoples lively hood can and will run into the billions. BP also advertised themselves as Beyond Petroleum no longer just British Petroleum. The image marketed was to show that BP was moving beyond oil, that they carried about the environment. With this ecological disaster, that image is destroyed. BP will always be remembered as one of the worst, dirty, corporate polluters in history. Exxon never presented themselves other than an oil company.
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So you think the BP executives decided they no longer "carried" about the environment, so they blew up one of their oil wells on purpose? Or, perhaps it was an accident and they're doing their best to try to stop it. Of course, if we lived in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, we could just send Elmer Fudd down with a giant cork to plug it up.
 
The Central Scrutinizer said:
So you think the BP executives decided they no longer "carried" about the environment, so they blew up one of their oil wells on purpose? Or, perhaps it was an accident and they're doing their best to try to stop it. Of course, if we lived in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, we could just send Elmer Fudd down with a giant cork to plug it up.
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I don't think that's what Arrow is saying.

You suggested "how quickly people forget." I submit that people forget more quickly when they're not personally touched by an incident. The few tens of thousands of people directly impacted by the Exxon spill may still hold a grudge, but they're a relatively small and uninfluential group. The rest of us simply picked up and carried on our lives after Valdez.

By contrast, I'd estimate the number of people directly and significantly impacted by Deepwater Horizon in the tens of millions -- and they include the very profitable tourism and Gulf seafood industries that are the mainstays of the local economies. So there are a lot more people who are a lot more likely to hold onto a grudge for a lot longer, which means that BP is going to have a much harder time walking away from this.
 
drkitten said:
I don't think that's what Arrow is saying.

You suggested "how quickly people forget." I submit that people forget more quickly when they're not personally touched by an incident. The few tens of thousands of people directly impacted by the Exxon spill may still hold a grudge, but they're a relatively small and uninfluential group. The rest of us simply picked up and carried on our lives after Valdez.

By contrast, I'd estimate the number of people directly and significantly impacted by Deepwater Horizon in the tens of millions -- and they include the very profitable tourism and Gulf seafood industries that are the mainstays of the local economies. So there are a lot more people who are a lot more likely to hold onto a grudge for a lot longer, which means that BP is going to have a much harder time walking away from this.
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True, but I think a few years from now (unless it gets way worse), after all the lawyers get paid, this will be largely forgotten about.

I also think Obama's plan to increase drilling in the Gulf is now dead.
 
Howie Felterbush said:
But you have to chase a seal out of the way to do it. :)

My point isn't that the Exxon Valdez had no impact, it's that the impact wasn't the oilpocalypse that people were screaming aout when it happened.
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20 years later commercial fisherman in prince william sound are struggling to make a living. It will still be many decades before the fish return.
 
lomiller said:
20 years later commercial fisherman in prince william sound are struggling to make a living. It will still be many decades before the fish return.
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Won't argue that. But the fact that they're "struggling to make a living" and not "washing cars instead of catching fish to make a living" tells me that the Valdez disaster didn't wipe all forms of marine life out of the Sound and surrounding area, like many alleged experts said it would.

This leak is a horrible thing, but it's not the end of the world, and probably not even the end of BP.
 
Soapy Sam said:
BP or BP America?
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Soapy makes a key point here. I think BP America is toast. In fact, BP should push as much liability onto BP American as possible, pay all the direct costs then declare bankruptcy. BP International can then go on with business as usual. ExxonMobil or Shell will buy the useful assets of BP American and they will also go on with business as usual. Thus, I see Exxon or Shell as the best long-term buy.
 
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