BP controversies

Company response

• Apology — BP

  The oil company said it had "regrettably" fallen short of its "high standards", and that the incident "should not have happened."

• Investigation — BP

  BP said it had carried out a "thorough investigation" after this incident and applied lessons which had been learned.

• Remediation — BP

  the company has introduced improved procedures since then.

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• The coastal damages lawsuits were intended to hold the oil companies responsible for pollution and land loss long afflicting Louisiana.

• Under the new economic damages agreement, BP's payments of the remaining $373 million to Louisiana, initially due in instalments over the next seven years, will be replaced with a single disbursement of around $350 million, the oil company said in a statement.

• The City of Annapolis is suing 26 oil and gas companies for what it calls the costs and consequences of climate change.

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• Multnomah County’s lawsuit, filed in 2023 and amended in 2024 to add new defendants, is more than 200 pages long

• Multnomah County’s lawsuit names companies including ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, and NW Natural, as well as industry lobbyists and the consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

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• The Washington Department of Ecology is penalizing British Petroleum $100,000 for two Olympic Pipeline gasoline spills in a Seattle suburb.

• About 67.4 gallons of gasoline reached state waters, Ecology said.

• The spills were the result of BP inadequately tightening fittings and failing to perform leak checks at normal operating pressure, according to Ecology.

Company response

• Denial — Exxon

  "These lawsuits have no merit and do nothing to advance meaningful efforts that address climate change," said Exxon spokesman Casey Norton.

• Denial — Shell

  Shell is "disappointed" by the suit and believes climate change requires "inclusive action from all business sectors, including ours," said spokeswoman Anna Arata.

• Denial — American Petroleum Institute

  The industry provides affordable energy "while substantially reducing emissions," said Paul Afonso, API's chief legal officer, adding that the suit is "meritless."

• Denial — ExxonMobil

  “These lawsuits have no merit and do nothing to advance meaningful efforts that address climate change,” Casey Norton, a spokesperson for ExxonMobil, said in an emailed response to the new lawsuit.

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• New York City has filed a lawsuit charging some of the world’s biggest oil companies with systematically and intentionally deceiving New Yorkers about the dangers posed by their products.

• We’re specifically targeting Exxon, Shell, BP and the American Petroleum Institute, which is the trade group for Big Oil.

• The lawsuit said Exxon Mobil Corp, BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell and industry group the American Petroleum Institute "have systematically and intentionally misled consumers" through fuel sales at branded stations as "cleaner" and "emissions-reducing" while not disclosing climate impacts.

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• The fines and instructions are outlined in a legal settlement filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Hammond.

• BP will pay the federal government more than $500,000 and tighten up operations after environmental groups caught the London-based oil conglomerate emitting illegal amounts of lung-damaging soot at its refinery in northwest Indiana, just across the state border from Chicago.

Company response

• Remediation — BP

  BP said: "We fully accept the outcome of the OGA investigation, which reflects the findings of our own, and have already put in place corrective measures."

• Investigation — BP

  The company’s own investigation found internal communications had broken down, there was no guidance in place for managing OGA consents, and there was a lack of awareness among engineers of consent requirements, the regulator said.

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• The OGA said the company had failed to report the progress and results of two extended well tests in the North Sea.

• BP said: "We fully accept the outcome of the OGA investigation, which reflects the findings of our own, and have already put in place corrective measures."

• BP has been fined £50,000 by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) for failing to meet reporting requirements.

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• OIL giant BP has been given a five-figure fine by a government watchdog for breaching licence conditions in Scottish waters.

Company response

• Remediation — BP

  The agreement requires the companies to implement proper controls to ensure compliance with clean air laws moving forward.

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• According to a January 2020 complaint, valves, piping and other equipment were not properly identified, monitored or equipped to detect and repair leaks that emit hazardous pollutants into the air.

• A federal judge has approved a settlement requiring BP Products North America Inc. and BP-Husky Refining LLC to pay $2.6 million to the U.S. government and Ohio for alleged violations of clean air laws.

• The agreement signed Wednesday by Senior U.S. District Judge James G. Carr settles allegations that BP Products and BP-Husky violated the Clean Air Act and hazardous substance reporting requirements at the BP-Husky Toledo Refinery.

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• In a virtual hearing held via web link, Judge Lady Wolffe today [FRI 3] imposed an £80,000 fine after finding Greenpeace guilty of breaching a court interdict taken out by BP’s rig operator Transocean.

• Greenpeace argued its actions were necessary to prevent BP from exacerbating the climate crisis by extracting 30 million barrels of oil from new oil wells in the North Sea’s Vorlich field.

• Greenpeace has now launched a second legal bid to get BP’s drilling permit cancelled altogether.

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• U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier on Thursday agreed with government lawyers that BP should face paying up to $4,300 for each barrel of oil spilled.

• A federal judge has rejected an attempt by BP to lower the fines it faces from its catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.