The hatches have been battened down at BP headquarters in London as angry shareholders, artists, campaigners and people from communities affected by its oil spills converge on Thursday's annual general meeting - which comes just days before the first anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. The company, which spent more than $90m on PR in the first three months of the spill, is saying nothing publicly but has been running advertisements in the national press this week. In the adverts, BP claims that no oil has flowed into the Gulf since it repaired the leak on 15 July, and says it has spent more than $13bn (£7.9bn) on the clean-up. What's more, it says, it has committed $500m to fund scientific studies on the impact of the spill, and more than $280m to projects including wildlife rescue and the restoration of habitats.
This cuts no ice whatever with Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation fisherwoman from the Texas Gulf coast. She was recently arrested for protesting against BP and faces a prison sentence of 800 days. Wilson is in London to try to present the "Black Planet award" to BP in person. She says:
"I am here to call BP to account for its actions in the Gulf – for the oil spill, the lies, the cover-ups, the skimping on safety, the deaths, the non-existent documents, the 'swinging door' with regulators. I am coming to articulate the anger of thousands of Gulf coast residents whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed while the BP board continues to prosper."
Direct action groups including Art Not Oil, Climate Camp London, Climate Rush and London Rising Tide are also deeply unimpressed by BP's PR. They plan to publicly embarrass the Tate Modern gallery, the British Museum and many other major cultural institutions in protest at their sponsorship deals with BP. Flash mobs and a series of protests are planned to damage the BP brand.
It also disgusts Antonia Juhasz, the author of Black Tide, one of the first major books to examine the Gulf spill. Juhasz has spent a year talking to the industry, affected communities, scientists and others and says she has been shocked by what she saw and found. She accuses BP of lying – not just to the public, but to the regulators – about how unprepared the world's fourth biggest company was for an offshore spill of this size.
"The regulators let them lie, but they said they could handle a spill 300,000 barrels a day. At its worse this was 80,000 barrels a day, yet look what happened. Industry just had not invested. It still does not know the effects of the dispersant and the impact of the spilt oil. It did not know how to clean it up, let alone track it. Everything was guesswork. No one knows just how much oil is still down there. What is clear is that people are still suffering and the Gulf is not clean."
She was shocked too, she says, not just by BP's huge PR machine – which fell apart in the crisis as President Barack Obama and his administration weighed in and the scale of the disaster became apparent – but by the way the wider industry tried to isolate BP and make the disaster appear to be a one-off event.
"The industry tried really hard to convince the public that this was a fluke, that it was isolated and that it happened because of a foreign company. They had a very orchestrated strategy."
After a year investigating the spill, she is convinced there will be others:
"There are now 148 other deep water wells in the world. They are going everywhere. Yet the ecological and financial costs of failure are catastrophic. The lessons just have not been learned. Not a single piece of new legislation has come out of it."
And she's not impressed by BP's claim that it is spending $500m to fund scientific studies.
"BP is requiring scientists to sign three-year confidentiality agreements. The research should be made public immediately. It should be publicly accountable with no strings attached."
The last straw, she says was when BP announced that it was moving into Canada to exploit the dirtiest of all oils - the tar sands. "What is really shocking is that BP has recovered so well," she says.
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Excellent article and I urge everyone to post copies to their banks and financial advisors at once.
The current frightening activity of oil companies concerns the Arctic, on a massive scale. There seems to be no environmentally protective legislation strong enough to impose curbs or create worldwide consensus.
Please keep us updated on as much of this as possible, with some of those excellent maps from your graphic department.
Does that mean that it's fair to assume that Ms. Juhasz has given up driving, doesn't put oil or grease on her bicycle, doesn't fly in anything other than corn-fed aircraft, or use trains powered by anything other than steam produced from wood-chips or have any man made fibres in her clothes, or eat any food produced using petro-chemical fertilizers, or use plastic computers, ipads, ipods and iphones, or send letters by post which use any of the above, or buy food from shops which have their stock delivered by road, or write books which are printed on paper made from wood cut with petrol driven chainsaws and delivered to the paper mill on diesel lorries, or use any of the above to travel around promoting her book? Is she Amish? or a Hutterite or a Shaker then?
The oil spill was an utter catastrophe - but I don't put 100% of the blame on BP .........and I wish we could get the bankers to pay this kind of compensation for the particular brand of havoc they've wreaked.
I don't think you can say BPs PR fell apart. I think Tony Hayward was an absolute calamity as a CEO and could not have done more damage if he had been deliberate. He came across as an arrogant Brit, who was annoyed that this "little event in a big ocean" was interfering with his holidays and sailing and life.
No PR company in the world can save a company with someone like him at its head.
Equally Antonia Juhasz sound like she is trying to be the Gillian Duffy of the environment, with much rhetoric but little substance. Many fishermen and fisherwomen have made a nice tidy buck from BPs discomfort. One should compare their incomes pre and post spill to see the true picture. But that wouldn't make good copy.
But, of course, people like this are unconvinced. That's their purpose. Rather than giving a voice to such biased groups, the mainstream perception would be much more interesting and significant.
@NMTB
Would the biased groups we don't need to listen to include the companies trying to avoid their liabilities?
Or are you OK with bias on one side but not on the other?
gubulgaria
where did I exclude any companies trying to avoid their liabilities?
I also didn't exclude any companies with the word L in their name, companies founded on a Tuesday,...
Please indicate where in my comment above I have stated anything suggesting that I may be ok with bias on one side but not on another?
"Direct action groups including Art Not Oil, Climate Camp London, Climate Rush and London Rising Tide are also deeply unimpressed by BP's PR."
Surprise surprise ..... what exactly would it take to impress these 'action groups' ?? Lets face it - nothing ! The BP accident is an excuse for them to rant and rave and pontificate. The groups add no value to anybody or anything - they offer no solutions, they do nothing but try to tear down the fabric and wealth of the modern world but will remain utterly unanswerable to any impact of the havoc their disastrous ideologies would wreak.
They are peopled by drop outs and misfits - angry about society in general - hating everything good in the world and themselves even more. And yet you pander to them like they represent a better future. You build them up like they represent some major form of public opinion, like they stand for the true feelings of the great British public. They represent nobody.
And how do you treat BP ? Yes - they had a disastrous accident and killed 11 people - a tragedy - but they are one of the UK companies, finest brands,employing about 100,000 people, producing over 4 million barrels of oil equivalent every single day, often in extreme conditions and using technology you can't even begin to fathom. Providing the energy we all need to live our wonderfully rich and prosperous modern lives.
Who gives a shit if Climate Rush is 'deeply unimpressed' ? What the hell have they ever done for anybody ?
@NeverMindTheBollocks
These "biased" groups are trying to influence public opinion. BP are also seeking to influence public opinion, but they have far deeper pockets and the ear of their colleagues in government.
If BP are to be given the oxygen of publicity by the Guardian then the least that can be done is to give coverage to groups with a different view.
@Immystillcan
A lie. They have a variety of campaigning tactics and offer a variety of slutions. If you are being honest and have not heard these solutions then you need to do some more research.
Another lie. One of the more famous people in one of the groups listed delayed starting training for the ministry to campaign full time. Most of the campaigners take a lot of time out of their jobs to campaign. When it comes out I hope you will educate yourself by watching Just Do It.
They represent me and many of my friends. So another lie.
Projecting the world towards runaway climate change by over-reliance on fossil fuels. They can no longer claim this is accidental, they are now deliberately doing it knowing the likely consequences. The very opposite of a fine brand. A disgrace.
Scottishperson5
Which is why I suggested that a balanced mainstream view would be better than either.
If BP fails, some other company will step in and do exactly the same things that BP would have done. There will be no change.
The world needs oil and gas. The world doesn't need Art Not Oil. If Art Not Oil want to make a difference, they should stop pratting about painting pictures and put a bit of their creativity into inventing a device for mass electricity storage. But that would involve hard work and no chanting at people in suits, so its not going to happen.