Future BP expansion in Gulf of Mexico needs closer U.S. scrutiny, Sen. Bingaman tells Platts Energy Week TV
Washington - June 28, 2010
BP, the largest oil and gas producer in the Gulf of Mexico, should be subject to "a very high degree of scrutiny" by the U.S. government before receiving permission to expand its drilling operations in the region, the lead U.S. senator on energy said Sunday.
Senator Jeff Bingaman, who last week introduced legislation to reform government oversight of offshore drilling, also said the April 20 explosion of BP's Macondo well in the gulf, appeared to be the result of "negligent activities," though he declined to say if he thought the company had committed any criminal violations.
"My impression would be they should be subject to a very high degree of scrutiny when they want to enter into new drilling activities," the New Mexico Democrat, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said on Platts Energy Week, an energy-focused weekly half-hour news and talk-show program.
"I do think there has been enough of a pattern of negligent activities that the government needs to have a heightened sense of concern until that company can fix its own management system and get better control of what they're doing," he said.
Bingaman, a former attorney general in New Mexico, said "someone will determine if there's been criminal activity, or not," in regard to the well explosion and subsequent massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an inquiry into the potential for criminal violations associated with the disaster.
"I think clearly the steps that should have been taken to head off this kind of accident were not taken, and BP was the prime company responsible for that drilling rig and the activity going on there," Bingaman said.
Separately, a BP official Sunday told the Platts Energy Week audience that the company's process for paying claims of gulf residents, including local fishermen and shrimpers, has been going well, despite numerous reports to the contrary.
"The claims process has been going along smoothly," Crystal Ashby, BP's vice president for government and public affairs. "We have been able to pay claims within four days -- most of them, as long as the appropriate documentation has been submitted."
BP reported Friday that it had paid $126 million in claims, having acted on 39,000 of the 74,000 submitted.
Ashby said BP is continuing to transfer claim activities to a new federal system organized by the Obama administration, including a $20-billion escrow account the company agreed to establish.
"The $20 billion is the beginning, and we will continue to do what we need to do to make sure people in the Gulf of Mexico and the situation are made right," Ashby said.
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