Government Corruption Caused BP (NYSE:BP) Oil Spill, Testimony

The recent testimony of William Reilly of the National Committee on the BP Deepwater Horizon, asserted the BP (NYSE:BP) oil spill from the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was caused by government corruption, rather than simply being an accident.

Reilly blamed the "accident" on the government and its regulatory agencies like MMS refusing to enforce or implement basic safety practices and measures.

Reilly said, “We have found that the industry has distorted and impeded effective rule making and prevented rules from being made.”

In other words, Reilly claims the government and industry are working together against safe drilling.

“The regulatory and inspection process has been subject to political and industry pressure. The industry has successfully sought congressional intervention to prevent implementation of mms rule making,” concluded Reilly.

As long as lawmakers and the oil industry are in bed together, safety issues will not be properly addressed and more oil spills could happen in the future in the Gulf of Mexico, according to Reilly.

Shell (LSE:RDSA) Drilling Suspended

Shell Oil (LSE:RDSA) is being told no by the government to drill for oil in the Artic. They were planning to drill five exploratory wells off of the coast of Alaska. The Justice Department defended this action just days ago but it was shut down by The Interior Department.

Shell is pointing out that they would have been drilling in much shallower water than the depth that Deepwater Horizon was drilling. They would only be drilling 150 feet verses the 5,000 feet BP is drilling at. The officials at Shell feel this move is totally political because of the disaster in the Gulf. Obama employed the Geological Survey which is supposed to determine the companies ability to respond, as well as determining the potential impact if they were to were to face the challenges of an oil spill like is currently being experienced.

Leaders of the Center For Biological Diversity are saying that they do not have the technology in the Artic if there were a massive oil spill. Which would be catastrophic for the entire ice environment, among several species including the polar bear.

The Mineral Management Services (MMS) say that there is approximately $27 billion barrels of oil in just the U.S. portion of the Artic. Obama feels the domestic exploration of oil would make the country less dependant on foreign oil as we pursue the transition to a cleaner oil.

BP (NYSE:BP) Oil Spill Could Go On Until December, Despite Best Hazardous Spill Containment Efforts

Despite BP's (NYSE:BP) best hazardous spill containment efforts, it's looking like the oil could be raging on continually until December and possibly into the new year. Dan Pickering, the head of research at energy investor Tudor Pickering Holt. & Company in Houston said, this process is teaching us to be skeptical of deadlines. The worst case scenario is Christmas time.

If this time frame is correct and the crude oil continues to pour out of the well, that will be approximately 4 million barrels of oil since April 20th. This is based on the governments estimate of the oil leak spewing 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day into the Gulf.

Mak Saito, an Associate Scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts said, with so much crude pouring into the ocean, it could change the very chemistry of the sea. Robert Wine, a BP spokesman, would not give the company's worst case scenario. Although, in its original plans for Monacondo, BP estimated the worst case scenario for an oil spill loss was 162,000 barrels a day, according to its filing with the U.S. Interior Departments Mineral Management Service.

Fred Aminzadeh, a research professor at the University of Southern California's Center for Integrated Smart Oil Fields, said the absolute worst case scenario is that the well is never successfully plugged. That would leave the well to flow for probably more than a decade.