[News] from [guardian.co.uk]
[guardian > Business > Oil]
BP's Deepwater Horizon costs hit $1.25bn
｛ＢＰ社の石油掘削リグ”ディープウォーター・ホライゾン”のコスト、12.5億ドル（約1160億円）に達する｝
> Efforts to stop leak, clean-up costs and compensation costing tens of millions a day
｛流出封じ込め対策、原油除去費、補償費用で１日に数10億円｝
> BP shares rise 2.7% this morning on hopes for success and dividend pledge
｛ＢＰ社の株価、封じ込めの成功の兆しと配当補償で今朝2.7％上昇｝
> Chief executive vows to spend 'what it takes' to fix spill
｛ＢＰ社の最高責任者、封じ込めするための代償は厭わないと断言｝
Graeme Wearden
guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 June 2010 08.57 BST
Article history
{{Protesters yesterday outside a BP station in Florida. The company, and its chief executive Tony Hayward, have been much criticised over its response to the spill.}
{Photograph}: Dave Martin/AP}
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has now cost BP $1.25bn (£870m), as its much-criticised chief executive vows to spend "what it takes" to fix the Deepwater Horizon disaster that has caused growing anger across America.
The energy company continues to spend tens of millions of dollars a day trying to stop the leak, mopping up oil on the surface, and compensating some of the people affected by the spill. It has also been instructed by the US coastguard to pay the $360m cost of building six sand booms off Louisiana to divert oil from the coastline, taking its committed spending over the $1.6bn mark.
BP continues to insist that it can fix America's worst ever environmental disaster. Tony Hayward, BP's embattled chief executive, tweeted on Twitter this morning that "Our top priority is the Gulf. I will not be diverted away from that. We will spend what it takes to make it right."
Hayward, who was dubbed "the most hated – and most clueless – man in America" last week, is handing responsibility for running the clean-up operation to its American director, Bob Dudley. This may assuage some of the fury vented at the British company, which faces calls for its US assets to be seized.
Although BP is now managing to collect some of the leaking oil through the containment cap it installed last week, the spill is expected to continue until August when relief wells have been drilled.
Official estimates put the leak anywhere between 12,000 and 25,000 barrels of oil a day, and it is not clear how successful the containment cap will be. BP has said it collected around 10,000 barrels on Sunday and hopes to eventually capture most of the leak, but the US coastguard is being much more cautious.
"I'm hoping we catch as much oil as we can, but I'm withholding any comment until production is at a full rate," said Thad Allen, the US coastguard admiral.
Oil from the stricken wellhead has now reached the beaches of Alamaba and Florida, widening the environmental damage caused by the spill, despite 2.2m ft (6.7km) of containment boom being deployed. There are also 2,600 boats involved in the response effort.
BP said it has paid compensation totalling $48m to 18,000 individuals – out of a total of 37,000 compensation claims. President Barack Obama, who has also been criticised for his approach to the catastrophe, said yesterday it was "brutally unfair" that ordinary fishermen and shopkeepers were seeing their businesses damaged by the spill.
"If laws were broken, those responsible will be brought to justice," Obama said yesterday. "We will make sure they pay every single dime owed to the people along the Gulf coast."
The City continues to be reassured by BP's efforts, and its refusal so far to cut its dividend. The company's shares were the only risers on the FTSE 100 when trading began today, up 11p or 2.7% to 444p.
[guardian > Environment > Bhopal]
Bhopal disaster criminal court verdicts to be delivered
｛ボパール有毒ガス災害の刑事法廷、評決を下す見込み｝
> 12 Indian Union Carbide managers face possible jail sentences
｛１２人のユニオンカーバイド社の責任者、実刑の可能性高まる｝
> US chairman Warren Anderson still refuses to face trial
｛米国のウォーレン・アンダーソン前最高経営責任者、なおも出廷拒否｝
Jason Burke
The Guardian, Monday 7 June 2010
Article history
{{Bhopal residents demonstrate on the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster in December. A magistrate is set to deliver judgment on 12 criminal cases against senior managers.}
{Photograph}: Reinhard Krause/Reuters}
An Indian court is set to deliver a historic judgment on the Bhopal gas disaster, one of the worst modern industrial accidents.
Over 25 years after a leak from a chemical plant owned by Union Carbide Corporation, a US company, killed up to 25,000 people and harmed hundreds of thousands more in the central Indian city, the city judicial magistrate of Bhopal will today decide whether a dozen senior managers and directors of the plant should go to jail. The verdict will be the first in a criminal prosecution connected to the tragedy.
Those in the dock are all Indian. The trial was split following the refusal of the then chairman Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, who is American, to return to India to face charges.
Those in the dock are now accused of causing death by criminal negligence and face a sentence of up to two years' imprisonment if found guilty.
Original charges of culpable homicide, which carries a potential 10-year sentence, were controversially downgraded by the supreme court in 1996. Anderson remains charged with the more serious offence.
The trial has involved 178 witnesses and over 3,000 documents. The prosecution has sought to show that the accident was a result of the Bhopal plant's defective design and poor maintenance. Groups representing the survivors of the disaster have criticized the prosecution case, brought by the state through India's Central Bureau of Investigation, which they say has been poorly prepared.
The disaster was caused when late in the evening of 2 December 1984, safety systems failed, allowing methyl isocyanate, a key ingredient for pesticide, to mix with water at high temperatures. Poorly trained and ill-equipped local staff were unable to prevent the subsequent release of clouds of highly toxic gas. Worst hit were the densely-populated slum areas which had grown up around the plant since its construction in 1969.
Groups representing the survivors of the tragedy say that those responsible should face more serious sanctions.
"Justice will be done in Bhopal only if the individuals and corporations responsible are punished in an exemplary manner," said Rashida Bee, who lost six family members in the disaster. "Union Carbide's disaster was foreseeable and foreseen and still allowed to happen."
One defendant, Vijay Gokhale, who was managing director of the Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation at the time, told the local Sunday Mid Day newspaper that the accused were not "nervous" about the end of the trial. "We all hope there is some kind of closure," he said.
The number of casualties caused by the disaster remains disputed. The Madhya Pradesh government has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths. Campaigners say more than six times as many were killed and nearly 250,000 harmed. A 2004 Amnesty International report said around 100,000 people in Bhopal continue to suffer "chronic and debilitating illnesses". Many have received little compensation. A deal struck by the Indian government with Union Carbide was based on an early estimate of victims that proved extremely low.
Defendants will be able to appeal today's verdict.
[guardian > Business > Oil]
BP's Deepwater Horizon costs hit $1.25bn
｛ＢＰ社の石油掘削リグ”ディープウォーター・ホライゾン”のコスト、12.5億ドル（約1160億円）に達する｝
> Efforts to stop leak, clean-up costs and compensation costing tens of millions a day
｛流出封じ込め対策、原油除去費、補償費用で１日に数10億円｝
> BP shares rise 2.7% this morning on hopes for success and dividend pledge
｛ＢＰ社の株価、封じ込めの成功の兆しと配当補償で今朝2.7％上昇｝
> Chief executive vows to spend 'what it takes' to fix spill
｛ＢＰ社の最高責任者、封じ込めするための代償は厭わないと断言｝
Graeme Wearden
guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 June 2010 08.57 BST
Article history
{{Protesters yesterday outside a BP station in Florida. The company, and its chief executive Tony Hayward, have been much criticised over its response to the spill.}
{Photograph}: Dave Martin/AP}
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has now cost BP $1.25bn (£870m), as its much-criticised chief executive vows to spend "what it takes" to fix the Deepwater Horizon disaster that has caused growing anger across America.
The energy company continues to spend tens of millions of dollars a day trying to stop the leak, mopping up oil on the surface, and compensating some of the people affected by the spill. It has also been instructed by the US coastguard to pay the $360m cost of building six sand booms off Louisiana to divert oil from the coastline, taking its committed spending over the $1.6bn mark.
BP continues to insist that it can fix America's worst ever environmental disaster. Tony Hayward, BP's embattled chief executive, tweeted on Twitter this morning that "Our top priority is the Gulf. I will not be diverted away from that. We will spend what it takes to make it right."
Hayward, who was dubbed "the most hated – and most clueless – man in America" last week, is handing responsibility for running the clean-up operation to its American director, Bob Dudley. This may assuage some of the fury vented at the British company, which faces calls for its US assets to be seized.
Although BP is now managing to collect some of the leaking oil through the containment cap it installed last week, the spill is expected to continue until August when relief wells have been drilled.
Official estimates put the leak anywhere between 12,000 and 25,000 barrels of oil a day, and it is not clear how successful the containment cap will be. BP has said it collected around 10,000 barrels on Sunday and hopes to eventually capture most of the leak, but the US coastguard is being much more cautious.
"I'm hoping we catch as much oil as we can, but I'm withholding any comment until production is at a full rate," said Thad Allen, the US coastguard admiral.
Oil from the stricken wellhead has now reached the beaches of Alamaba and Florida, widening the environmental damage caused by the spill, despite 2.2m ft (6.7km) of containment boom being deployed. There are also 2,600 boats involved in the response effort.
BP said it has paid compensation totalling $48m to 18,000 individuals – out of a total of 37,000 compensation claims. President Barack Obama, who has also been criticised for his approach to the catastrophe, said yesterday it was "brutally unfair" that ordinary fishermen and shopkeepers were seeing their businesses damaged by the spill.
"If laws were broken, those responsible will be brought to justice," Obama said yesterday. "We will make sure they pay every single dime owed to the people along the Gulf coast."
The City continues to be reassured by BP's efforts, and its refusal so far to cut its dividend. The company's shares were the only risers on the FTSE 100 when trading began today, up 11p or 2.7% to 444p.
[guardian > Environment > Bhopal]
Bhopal disaster criminal court verdicts to be delivered
｛ボパール有毒ガス災害の刑事法廷、評決を下す見込み｝
> 12 Indian Union Carbide managers face possible jail sentences
｛１２人のユニオンカーバイド社の責任者、実刑の可能性高まる｝
> US chairman Warren Anderson still refuses to face trial
｛米国のウォーレン・アンダーソン前最高経営責任者、なおも出廷拒否｝
Jason Burke
The Guardian, Monday 7 June 2010
Article history
{{Bhopal residents demonstrate on the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster in December. A magistrate is set to deliver judgment on 12 criminal cases against senior managers.}
{Photograph}: Reinhard Krause/Reuters}
An Indian court is set to deliver a historic judgment on the Bhopal gas disaster, one of the worst modern industrial accidents.
Over 25 years after a leak from a chemical plant owned by Union Carbide Corporation, a US company, killed up to 25,000 people and harmed hundreds of thousands more in the central Indian city, the city judicial magistrate of Bhopal will today decide whether a dozen senior managers and directors of the plant should go to jail. The verdict will be the first in a criminal prosecution connected to the tragedy.
Those in the dock are all Indian. The trial was split following the refusal of the then chairman Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, who is American, to return to India to face charges.
Those in the dock are now accused of causing death by criminal negligence and face a sentence of up to two years' imprisonment if found guilty.
Original charges of culpable homicide, which carries a potential 10-year sentence, were controversially downgraded by the supreme court in 1996. Anderson remains charged with the more serious offence.
The trial has involved 178 witnesses and over 3,000 documents. The prosecution has sought to show that the accident was a result of the Bhopal plant's defective design and poor maintenance. Groups representing the survivors of the disaster have criticized the prosecution case, brought by the state through India's Central Bureau of Investigation, which they say has been poorly prepared.
The disaster was caused when late in the evening of 2 December 1984, safety systems failed, allowing methyl isocyanate, a key ingredient for pesticide, to mix with water at high temperatures. Poorly trained and ill-equipped local staff were unable to prevent the subsequent release of clouds of highly toxic gas. Worst hit were the densely-populated slum areas which had grown up around the plant since its construction in 1969.
Groups representing the survivors of the tragedy say that those responsible should face more serious sanctions.
"Justice will be done in Bhopal only if the individuals and corporations responsible are punished in an exemplary manner," said Rashida Bee, who lost six family members in the disaster. "Union Carbide's disaster was foreseeable and foreseen and still allowed to happen."
One defendant, Vijay Gokhale, who was managing director of the Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation at the time, told the local Sunday Mid Day newspaper that the accused were not "nervous" about the end of the trial. "We all hope there is some kind of closure," he said.
The number of casualties caused by the disaster remains disputed. The Madhya Pradesh government has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths. Campaigners say more than six times as many were killed and nearly 250,000 harmed. A 2004 Amnesty International report said around 100,000 people in Bhopal continue to suffer "chronic and debilitating illnesses". Many have received little compensation. A deal struck by the Indian government with Union Carbide was based on an early estimate of victims that proved extremely low.
Defendants will be able to appeal today's verdict.
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