Asia-Pacific

BP eyes stake sale as spill cost tops $3 bln

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-07-05 21:23

 

EMPTY BEACHES

The impact on the Gulf of Mexico tourist industry was evident on Sunday, the 76th day of the disaster, as dozens of workers picked up tar balls along Pensacola Beach.

"It's ... sad to see the beach is not as crowded as it normally is, there's not as many people here. Not as many people in the restaurants. Very sad because you know they need the business," said Derek Robbins, a tourist from Houston who has been coming to Pensacola every year for decades.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that BP was facing fresh criticism over its approach to safety as it emerged it did not use an industry standard process, known as a safety case, to assess risk at the Deepwater Horizon rig.

A BP spokeswoman confirmed that it did not use the procedure, developed in Britain after the Piper Alpha oil rig explosion in 1988, at any of its US wells because it was not legally required to do so in the United States.

The Financial Times on Saturday reported that BP investors expected the company's leadership to change, possibly once the leak is capped, with both Chief Executive Tony Hayward and Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg at risk of losing their jobs.

A federal court last week lifted a six-month drilling ban imposed by the Obama administration. A new moratorium now being sought through the courts is expected to be more flexible and could be adjusted to allow drilling in certain subsea fields.