Oil giants 'unprepared' for another spill
Two US congressmen reviewing contingency plans of five major oil companies in the event of another spill say they are nearly identical – and are all unprepared.
Representative Ed Markey, chairman of the energy and commerce environment subcommittee, said the plans “cite identical response capabilities and tout identical, ineffective equipment”.
The committee looked at the plans of BP along with those of ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell Oil.
Mr Markey said at a hearing that two plans list the phone number for the same dead expert, and three include references to protecting walruses – which do not even live in the Gulf.
Committee chairman Henry Waxman called them “cookie cutter plans”, and said they are as unprepared as BP was to respond to a spill.
Meanwhile, the chief executive of ExxonMobil, told Congress that the Gulf oil spill would not have happened if BP had properly designed its deep water well, followed procedures, trained its employees and conducted tests adequately.
Rex Tillerson was testifying with other oil company executives before the same committee. He told lawmakers that the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker spill changed the way his own company operated, emphasising safety and environmental risk.
“We do not proceed with operations if we cannot do so safely,” Mr Tillerson wrote in prepared testimony.
