CNN, for better or worse, was showing the full picture of oil drilling in the Gulf....................It's just astounding that a company willing to invest so much would be so shortsighted in ensuring the best and safest means of running the actual operations.
BP holds the lease and it is their contractors that screwed the pooch. As the lease holders they have the ultimate liability in the entire mess. Transocean in turn most likely had all kinds of crontractors on board as well. While I'm not sure what BP's insurance setup is I do know from experience that most major corperations are self insured
through an insurance underwriter - meaing that Acme insurance handles the claims and paperwork Wyle E. Coyote' Inc. pays out the funds.
Having been around this industry quite a bit these last 28 years I can tell you that this technology is highly advanced. A lot of the engineering, construction and jobs are here on the gulf coast. The blowout preventers work and work well - all of the active rigs in the Gulf that have been lost to Hurricanes have not leaked a drop thanks to the preventers. The preventer in this instance sounds like it didn't have a chance as there was massive chemical reaction, casued by human error, that caused the ultimate failure.
The law suits will last past our lifetimes.
