Steffy: A Huge Cost for Little in Savings
Houston Chronicle—June 28th, 2010
A little less than 5 million bucks.
That’s about how much BP may have saved by drilling the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico the way it did rather than using a more conservative approach.
Eleven people are dead, the Gulf is despoiled, livelihoods along its coast are in jeopardy, beaches are tarred and even the oil industry itself now finds itself shut out of its most promising area for new exploration. All for about 5 million bucks.
Last week, I asked a half-dozen independent oil industry experts with experience in offshore drilling to estimate the costs of using more conservative methods. All but one agreed that the added costs would have been between $4.75 million and $5 million. The lone holdout said it might have cost $6.5 million.
BP spent more than $100 million to drill the well, so the added expense would have been incidental. It’s a pittance compared with the tens of billions BP will spend to clean up the mess and the roughly $100 billion it’s lost in market value.
Read More: Houston Chronicle
