Remember the BP “top hat”? It was one in a series of desperate attempts by the company to capture the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion last year. The top hat, mocked though it was, managed to capture and remove 679,000 barrels of oil from the crippled well, pumping it to nearby tankers.As it turns out, this salvaged oil translated to $47.3 million in proceeds for the three oil companies who leased drilling rights on the rig. Now, the Deepwater Horizon court case underway in Texas is dredging up the unprecedented circumstances of those profits, and a fight is underway to define the regulations governing them.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=109942