BP

By Al Jazeera Staff in Middle East on February 17th, 2011
Saif Gaddafi, the son of Libya's leader, warned of 'civil war' in a speech on Sunday night.

As protests in Libya enter their eighth day, following a "day of rage" on Thursday, we keep you updated on the developing situation from our headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

(All times are local in Libya GMT+2)

Blog: Feb17 - Feb18 - Feb19 - Feb20

By Abid Ali in Business on July 27th, 2010
Photo by Reuters

Tony Hayward paid a heavy price.

In stepping down as the chief executive of BP he’ll cushion the blow with a 1.6 million dollar pay-off, and that does not include his pension pot of 900,000 dollars a year.

A heavy price when we consider the Lloyd Blankfien is still the chief executive of Goldman Sachs and Toyota’s Akio Toyoda is still the president. 

It will be a matter of time before Transocean, the owner of the drilling rig BP was leasing, and oil engineering contract Halliburton have to answer for their actions. All the signs are that BP was not to blame.

By John Terrett in Americas on May 27th, 2010
Photo by AFP

BP has begun its long awaited "top kill" operation to try to stem the flow of oil from beneath the Gulf of Mexico.
 
There are no guarantees it will be successful - even President Obama says so.

BP's chief executive says so far the operation is progressing as planned but "top kill" can't come too soon for the people of Louisiana, who are concerned about their livelihoods and their wildlife.

The online pictures BP is providing are amazing. They are never-before seen shots of an underwater operation never-before tried at this depth.

The sci-fi equipment is pumping heavy mud straight into the gushing oil riser. 

Tags: BP
By Nick Spicer in Americas on May 17th, 2010
Photo by EPA

"Call me Ishmael."

So begins Herman Melville epic seafaring novel, ostensibly about whaling, an American Odyssey recounting Captain Ahab's obsessive pursuit of a great oil-carrying sperm whale, Moby Dick.

It ends in disaster.

I write this in a sand barrier motel in Grand Isle Louisiana, in a hot room overlooking an empty beach, and just a few of the six hundred-plus oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

And it is hard not to ask: is BP another Captain Ahab?

Or, worse, is the United States?

Crude oil is not, of course, sperm whale oil, or "spermicetti". But they have had equally pervasive influences on their societies.

In Melville's 19th century, the oil was used to burn in lamps, make candles, soften leather and even, he writes, to anoint kings:

"Certainly it cannot be olive oil, nor macassar oil, nor castor oil, nor bear's oil, nor train oil, nor cod-liver oil.

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