I watched an interesting program on it last night I think it may have been one of the national geographic channels. It had some quite good interviews with people who had worked fighting the fire on the rig that started it all. From the looks of it there was no more they could have done, including the use of a skimmer to remove oil from the water for processing on land.

Boris

At the end of the day, this is politics.

BP was only the leaseholder of the rig. It was actually built by an American company. It was being operated by an American company. And there are rumours that the safety regulator was grossly neglegent (and, yes, American too).

The flipside is that BP hasn't exactly got an untarnished record in the US for preventable disasters, and frankly not being American makes it an ideal candidate for the blame game.

I'm sure most Americans don't associate any of this with the Gasoline they put in their big trucks. I mean, this is oil, or '710' as some people understand it ;)

I`ve been somehat bemused over the alleged `anger` reportedly from the President - along with planned boycotts of BP stations.

Did anyone see the Union Jack being stomped on last night on the news? Presumably there was the thought that we too `worshipped` our flag - while the reallity being we don`t give a toss - and wear it as underpants.

I mean, It`s an accident isn`t it? It`s not as though BP has said `your mega trucks that you use as personal transport use so much fuel -- that we`ll just flood the Gulf of Mexico with oil and it should last you a week or so given your world leading consumption`.

Best start filling up at BP stations to prop them up - I suppose ;-)

Yawn..

Yeah, I know it`s the environment - but what`s wrong with constructive US support for BP - when all that can be done, seems to be being done? And that it seems likely that they will consume it all anyway, once it`s fixed and piped ashore.

And where is The Special Relationship?

I`ve been somehat bemused over the alleged `anger` reportedly from the President - along with planned boycotts of BP stations.

Did anyone see the Union Jack being stomped on last night on the news? Presumably there was the thought that we too `worshipped` our flag - while the reallity being we don`t give a toss - and wear it as underpants.

I mean, It`s an accident isn`t it? It`s not as though BP has said `your mega trucks that you use as personal transport use so much fuel -- that we`ll just flood the Gulf of Mexico with oil and it should last you a week or so given your world leading consumption`.

Best start filling up at BP stations to prop them up - I suppose ;-)

Yawn..

Yeah, I know it`s the environment - but what`s wrong with constructive US support for BP - when all that can be done, seems to be being done? And that it seems likely that they will consume it all anyway, once it`s fixed and piped ashore.

And where is The Special Relationship?

I`ve been somehat bemused over the alleged `anger` reportedly from the President - along with planned boycotts of BP stations.

Did anyone see the Union Jack being stomped on last night on the news? Presumably there was the thought that we too `worshipped` our flag - while the reallity being we don`t give a toss - and wear it as underpants.

I mean, It`s an accident isn`t it? It`s not as though BP has said `your mega trucks that you use as personal transport use so much fuel -- that we`ll just flood the Gulf of Mexico with oil and it should last you a week or so given your world leading consumption`.

Best start filling up at BP stations to prop them up - I suppose ;-)

Yawn..

Yeah, I know it`s the environment - but what`s wrong with constructive US support for BP - when all that can be done, seems to be being done? And that it seems likely that they will consume it all anyway, once it`s fixed and piped ashore.

And where is The Special Relationship?

Sorry for previous blank messages...itouch playing up, so now back to PC.

I do believe the Americans have got their own back re the BP oil spill.

I believe they wiped some of the spill on Robert Green's goalkeeping gloves yo enable them to draw 1-1 with England yesterday.

Sorry if this is deemed to be crude...way to go Oilrag. Cheers.. The Kid

Obama's grandstanding is outrageous and has completely reversed my opinion of him. It may be for political reasons, but it's never a good idea to paint yourself into a corner which is what he's doing.

It was US policy to manage dependence on Arab oil by better exploiting its own reserves; it was the US Government that granted the licences and permissions. The rig was operated by Transocean, nominally Swiss but basically an American company and presumably employing mainly Americans. The BOP system was manufactured by US companies GE (Hydril) and Cameron. Presumably the US was happy to tax oil revenues as well.

As Oilrag says, it was, essentially, an accident occurring while operating with the blessing of, and regulated by, the US.

I declare an interest as my pension fund has taken at least a £4,000 hit largely IMO because of Obama's pandering to the mob. I understand quite a lot of US oilmen are disappointed with the hysteria too.

Two points.... firstly large corporations like BP transcend nations and nationalistic thinking; it possibly has more nonUK shareholders than British ones.

Secondly, in such large [and occasionally small] pyramidical organisations the guys at the top who are ostensibly the bosses sometimes have no idea what their junior operatives and executives are up to......and perhaps cannot control them even when they do [Bhopal, Railtrack, Lehman, Soc Gen, IRA etc].

It looks as though a rather gung-ho attitude with an overlay of profit-at-all-costs with minimal or ineffective monitoring had developed.