Oil-covered rocks by a public beach in Gulfport, Mississippi. Photo credit: Greenpeace USA.

Could we be preparing for the end of the Deepwater Horizon disaster?

BP is preparing to finally secure the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico. Though capped, the well remains a danger, with rogue oil threatening to resume its gush into the ocean. The strategy will involve pumping heavy mud and cement into the blowout preventer that sits on the wellhead; this “static kill” is part of what The Washington Post called a “double whammy” solution in which mud and cement will then be injected into Macondo through a relief well that engineers began drilling at the start of May. “If all goes perfectly, the one-two mud punch will literally be overkill,” said the paper. “The static kill will terminate Macondo, and the bottom kill will be more like a confirmation test, akin to poking the body to make sure it’s dead.”

But the good news for BP and the heavily polluted coastline is mitigated by the latest environmental scandal to hit the company. The Independent reported that the Gulf of Mexico has been “carpet-bombed” by BP with “a highly toxic chemical dispersant for months on end”. This action reportedly breaks with “official guidelines” issued in the aftermath of the disaster to use the substance (Corexit) in only “extremely rare” cases, according to the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee. BP recently admitted spraying 1.8 million gallons of Corexit but “the validity of those figures is now in question”, according to the Committee, following news that the US Coast Guard fast-tracked permits for BP to use Corexit on at least 74 occasions. “The disclosure raises the prospect that damage to marine life from the oil spill could eventually be outweighed by damage from Corexit,” warned The Independent.

The Mirror focused on “fresh controversy” sparked by BP following news that the company is planning its “deepest ever British drilling operation” off the Shetland Isles. The paper archly noted the area’s dense wildlife and quoted an irate Joss Garman from Greenpeace, who said: “The Government should not allow any operation that poses a threat to the fragile habitat off Scotland’s coast”. But it also gave space to “a BP spokesman” who confirmed that there no evidence that depth of water contributed to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The Guardian reported on news that BP is now beginning its “legal offensive” to cap its liabilities from the disaster by offering affected parties – including fishermen and tourist operators – a selection of “one-off compensation payouts in return for them waiving the right to sue”. BP “hopes that settling claims in this way will help it to begin to draw a line under the crisis and to quantify the costs,” said the paper, before noting advice from lawyers that it is “impossible to calculate future lost earnings”.

And where will the money for this come from? According to Wirtschafts Woche, a German business weekly, BP is seeking to sell its Aral chain of gas stations, whose value is estimated at 2 billion euros. “The $2.6 billion chain comprises 2,500 stations throughout Germany,” commented The New York Times.