Super Moderator
Location: essex ma
|
but of course a corporate person must needs protect that corporate person's image.
Quote:
May 6, 2010
For BP, a Battle to Contain Leaks and an Image Fight, Too
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
VENICE, La. — As a crew prepared to lower a giant steel container 5,000 feet below the ocean’s surface Thursday evening to capture oil leaking from a ruptured well, the top executive of BP said he was not actually counting on it to work.
“It’s only one of the battle fronts,” said the chief executive, Tony Hayward, as his leased Sikorsky helicopter hovered 1,000 feet above the spot where the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded on April 20, sending oil spurting into the Gulf of Mexico. BP was leasing the rig from the owner, Transocean.
Officials expected to have the containment dome lowered on cables and in position over the major leak on Thursday night. Late in the evening, the work was stalled because of dangerous fumes rising from the oily water in the windless night, the captain of the supply boat hauling the box told The Associated Press. A spark caused by the scrape of metal on metal could cause a fire, Capt. Demi Shaffer said.
Late Thursday, however, workers began lowering the dome on a journey to the seabed that was expected to take several hours, The A.P. reported.
Once the dome is in place, BP officials said that engineers would spend the next few days connecting a pipe from the huge metal box to a drill ship on the surface, and that the system might be running by early next week.
But Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer, cautioned that this was an experimental approach at these depths, and that problems were likely to arise. He said it could take a week to get it working smoothly.
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard confirmed that the oil hit the Chandeleur Islands off Louisiana’s southeast tip on Thursday, and the state said two gannets, a type of large seabird, had been found dead, covered in oil.
Jacqui Michel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that the oil on the Chandeleur Islands was a thin sheen she described as an “emulsified light orange,” and that the thicker oil remained farther out at sea. Crews worked to clean the oil from the marsh grasses by flushing them with clean water.
“We flush until we get no more than sheen because sheen is not very much oil,” she said.
Mr. Hayward said he was convinced that his oil company would eventually get the growing spill under control using a variety of tools, from a flotilla of skimmers to the spraying of chemical dispersants and the drilling of relief wells to plug the leaks on the sea floor. “This is like the Normandy landing,” he said. “We know we are going to win. We just don’t know how quickly.”
Mr. Hayward’s helicopter tour of the region, which took him from Houma, La., to a spill-response center in Mobile, Ala., then back to Louisiana, was part of a public-relations effort to encourage spill workers and reassure worried Gulf Coast residents. He allowed a reporter for The New York Times to accompany him during the day, although BP declined to let the reporter observe some meetings.
Depending on the extent of the oil damage and the outcome of government investigations into the accident, BP could face billions of dollars in claims.
“The possibility remains that the BP oil spill could turn into an unprecedented environmental disaster,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on a visit to Biloxi, Miss. “The possibility remains that it will be somewhat less.”
Right now, as his technical experts combat the spill itself, Mr. Hayward is focusing on the war for public opinion. “You can win that battle by what you do and how you do it and then telling people about it,” he said in several conversations Thursday on his gulf tour.
Toward that goal, the cherub-cheeked Mr. Hayward is getting in front of the cameras as much as possible in an effort to put the best light on his giant oil company, which is arguably going through the greatest crisis in its storied history.
The stock of the London-based oil company has plunged, and officials in Washington are promising tighter regulations. On Thursday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the government would not issue any new permits for offshore drilling for at least three weeks, and it was unclear how much Congress might limit deepwater oil drilling, a big source of profit for BP and tax revenue for the government, in the future.
Mr. Hayward is also well aware that his job could be on the line. His predecessor was removed three years ago after high-profile accidents in Texas and Alaska tarred BP’s reputation.
Mr. Hayward, 52, says he is hoping to turn the disaster into something of an advantage, showing the world that BP will make the biggest effort possible to protect the gulf environment and get to the bottom of what caused the rig explosion that killed 11 workers.
He has been a constant public face both on network television and local stations, and a cameraman follows him everywhere to record video for BP’s Web site.
In interview after interview, Mr. Hayward repeatedly points to Transocean, the owner of the rig that exploded, as the company ultimately responsible for the damages. But at the same time, he is guaranteeing that BP will spare no efforts to clean up the mess.
Mr. Hayward said his primary task as chief executive during the crisis is to provide the “strategic direction, organizing resources, keeping the team focused — and being seen on the front line with the troops and communicating.”
For a man who says he shies away from media attention, Mr. Hayward appeared very comfortable in front of the cameras, making small talk and teasing reporters. Dressed simply in black loafers, black pants and a blue shirt without a tie, he frequently wore his sunglasses on his forehead.
Mr. Hayward started his day with a tour over the gulf, where he watched a ship delivering the collection dome, the first of two the company hopes to place over a leaking pipe to collect the oil. He then flew to the joint government-company command center in Mobile to get briefings on preparations for beach cleanups and boom placement. He hugged, backslapped and complimented Coast Guard officials and BP personnel organizing the effort.
He finished the day meeting with officials in Venice, La., where he spoke to fishermen loading booms on boats, asked for advice, and thanked them for their efforts.
“You guys are doing the best you can,” one fisherman said.
Mr. Hayward replied: “We’re trying very hard. If we could do more, let us know.”
Sam Dolnick contributed reporting from Baton Rouge, La.
|
From Air, BP?s Chief Sees Progress in Containing Spill - NYTimes.com
this seems very much a privatized george w bush flight over new orleans, doesn't it?
__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
|