Posts Tagged ‘oil spill’

BP Getting Strict with Claims

Posted on: July 8th, 2010 by

Financial Planning - Rockville, MDBP is becoming increasingly strict with its demands for documentation from victims filing claims for lost wages and income in the Gulf region.  Immediately following the spill, many initial payments were distributed in uniform amounts with minimum documentation necessary based on estimates.  Now, BP is only going to make payments based on very specific documentation of the losses.  As a result of these more stringent standards, some claimants could get more money than the standard check they have been receiving while others could get much less.

Those claimants that are already in the claims system but have yet to submit the necessary documentation will get a $1,000 “good faith” check for July as they continue to gather papers, but they will not get full payment until proper documentation has been submitted.  Once the claimant submits the necessary documents, if they show that the victim is due more than the $1,000 advance payment for July, BP said it will provide a supplemental payment to make up the difference.

In the first months after the oil spill, BP was just cutting checks to the victims based on estimates without requiring specific documentation.  For example, boat captains that ran a crew got a $5,000 initial check and deckhands got $2,500.  The problem, especially in this scenario, was that fishermen earn the bulk of their annual pay in a few peak months that vary depending on the particular seafood being caught.  Now, when they submit their paperwork, those variations will be accounted for.

As BP tightens its demand for documentation, the company insists it is not trying to shortchange any claimants.  I don’t believe Gulf residents will see it this way at all.  Is BP trying to shirk responsibility?


Cleaning up the BP Oil Spill and Their Image

Posted on: June 20th, 2010 by

Financial Planning - Tax Planning - Rockville, MDBP’s new strategy to clean up its image and the Gulf Coast is to hand the job from its British CEO, who has been widely criticized for his inappropriate comments and yachting amid the crisis, to one of its top-ranking Americans.  Bob Dudley is no stranger to tough situations;  he protected the company’s interests in rough dealing in Russia even after he was barred from the country.  Most importantly though, he is a fresh face for the oil giant as it attempts to fix the spill and protect its future.  Dudley will take over as BP’s point man on the spill response, reporting to Hayward.  Company officials have variously put the time frame at anywhere from immediately until after the spill is plugged, which doesn’t appear to likely happen until August.

Hayward’s gaffes include saying, “I’d like my life back,” and most recently enjoying a yacht race off the coast of England on Saturday while oil spill relief workers sweated it out.  BP officials, however, say the switch is intended to allow Hayward to focus on running the company, rather than an attempt to bounce back from bad publicity. Analysts say Dudley’s job will involve nothing short of rehabilitating the environment, compensating everyone who has suffered a loss and generally salvaging BP’s global image.

Dudley has plenty of experience protecting BP’s interests under great pressure.  As chief of TNK-BP, a joint venture with a consortium of Russian billionaires, he steered the firm through a series of politically explosive disputes that saw one employee charged with espionage, the company’s offices raided by Russian intelligence, an investor boycott and a barrage of tax and labor investigations.  At one point, there was a huge effort put forth to remove him from office, but Dudley clung on until 2008, at one point running the company from abroad after Russian authorities barred him from the country.  Despite fears that BP’s partners would expropriate the British company’s share of the venture, BP has managed to keep its cut of TNK-BP’s multibillion-dollar profits.

Dudley also has shown a steady hand in his limited public appearances since the April 20 oil rig explosion that killed 11 workers and triggered the Gulf spill.  He was the one tapped to make the rounds of the Sunday morning shows at the end of May when BP’s latest bid to stanch the flow fell short.  “We failed to wrestle this beast to the ground,” he said matter-of-factly.  A week later, he struck a conciliatory note as he toured the Louisiana coast with Gov. Bobby Jindal, saying he was frustrated and saddened by what he saw.  He was there to promise that BP would fund state efforts to build sand berms to protect barrier islands from the oil.  “We understand the importance of this,” he said.  “We are deeply sorry.”

Industry insiders such as former Shell Oil president John Hofmeister have argued that BP from the start should have made an American the public face of its spill recovery efforts.  “I’ve been saying for weeks that Tony Hayward ought to pass this over to his top American executive,” Hofmeister said Sunday.  “He has completely competent people in the U.S. that can represent him in every instance.”  Hofmeister said Dudley has been involved in the Gulf oil spill recovery effort from the start, and he expects no changes in BP’s approach once he takes over.  “I think this is just a natural step for him to be exclusively focused on this aftermath,” he said.

President Barack Obama has said he would fire Hayward if he could, and many Gulf Coast residents have had their fill of him as well.  Craig Bielkiewicz, a fisherman who’s unemployed as a result of the spill, said as long as BP foots the bill for the cleanup, it’s better that Hayward just stay away.  “As long as he foots the bill and does what he says he’s going to do, then we don’t need him,” he said.  “All we need is for him to back off and let us do what we need to do.”

Dear BP:  Let the workers do their jobs and keep signing the checks.  Stop wasting your  money on PR campaigns; your image is in the tank for the time being.  Let’s work on the real problem at hand: the oil leak.