BP Oil Spill - Only Profit Maximisation can be the only reason

Likley path of the oil for four months following the spill. The colors represent the concentration of the oil. 0.20 (dark red) means the oil is 20% as concentrated as it is directly over the spill site.

On April 20, an oil rig operated by oil giant British Petroleum exploded, killing 11 workers. In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, BP announced that there was no leak from the destroyed rig. The U.S. Coast Guard validated this claim. BP contended that, in any case, a possible leak would be small, easily contained and not likely to reach land.

But in subsequent days, evidence of a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico emerged, forcing BP and the U.S. government to acknowledge the catastrophe, while minimizing it as much as possible.
It is impossible to predict the level of environmental destruction and the devastation of workers’ lives along the Gulf Coast. In fact, even the amount of oil that has already been leaked—and the leak continues unabated—is difficult to establish, given that the main sources of estimates of the volume of the oil leak are BP and the U.S. government, hardly objective sources of information. So far, the leaking BP well has spewed out as much as 630,000 barrels, making it the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Who bears responsibility?
Far from being an unavoidable accident, the Gulf of Mexico disaster is the result of a reckless drive by BP and its competitors to maximize their profits at the expense of the environment and the people whose lives will be wrecked by its destruction. BP received permission by the U.S. government to conduct extremely hazardous oil drilling a mile deep into the ocean floor. What is more, to protect its bottom line, BP actively lobbied the U.S. government to avoid having to provide real contingency plans in case of an accident, such as the one that happened. It is this ceaseless pursuit of profit that has made it possible for BP to make $5.6 billion in profit in the first quarter of 2010 alone. BP’s profits for the year 2010 are expected to total a staggering $23 billion.
BP worked hard to thwart the possibility of the passage of a new rule to make deep-sea drilling safer. On Sept. 14, 2009, BP sent a letter to the U.S. government, stating: "While BP is supportive of companies having a system in place to reduce risks, accidents, injuries and spills, we are not supportive of the extensive prescriptive regulations as proposed in this rule." BP’s safety plans for the well site states that in case of an accident, "due to the distance to shore (48 miles) and the response capabilities that would be implemented, no significant adverse impacts are expected."

A history of criminal activity
Far from being a "good corporate citizen," BP is a corporation that has made its huge profits through a history of crimes around the globe. Originally named the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, the company was founded in 1908, as the first company plundering the oil reserves of the Middle East. Anglo-Persian was renamed Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1935 and was subsequently renamed the British Petroleum Company in 1954.

-Drilling an oil well, c. 1910.(Anglo-Persian Oil Co.)

The British government owned a majority share of the company and what little revenue was handed to the Iranian government was paid back to British and other European creditors. In 1947, for example, AIOC reported after-tax profits of £40 million, while giving Iran a mere £7 million.
The company subjected Iranian workers to deplorable working conditions, paying Iranians considerably less than foreigners. But revolution in Iraq in 1953 made the oil less accessible to BP.


BP also had its hands in Iraq, as one of the key concession holders of that country’s oil. The nationalization of Iraq’s oil in 1972, which was the continuation of a process of the 1958 revolution in Iraq, was a blow to BP and other oil giants. The genocidal sanctions on Iraq, which cost more than a million lives, and eventually the invasion and occupation of Iraq, which continues to this day, have been carried out by imperialist powers to restore the immense profit-making opportunities of oil giants, including BP. BP has just gained virtual control of the Rumaila oil field in Iraq, possibly the second largest oil field in the world.

Struggle for justice
Capitalist corporations always cover up their crimes by blaming them on accidents, mishaps and individual errors. The capitalist government, at the service of these same corporations, does its best to conceal the magnitude of the devastation and shield the offending corporations from significant financial losses. Just after the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez disaster, this is abundantly clear. Despite the media coverage of the spill, Exxon Corp. never completely cleaned up the devastated areas. The disaster was largely blamed on one drunken captain, as opposed to Exxon’s consistent safety violations and its refusal to prepare and fund cleanup equipment to contain leaks caused by possible accidents.
It took nearly 20 years for the 30,000 native people of Alaska, whose lives have been devastated by the Exxon Valdez disaster, to get any compensation. And even then, the Supreme Court reduced the amount that Exxon had to pay by 90 percent, from $5 billion to only $500 million. "What more can a corporation do?" said Chief Justice John Roberts, justifying the decision.
The Obama administration has claimed that it will make BP pay for this disaster. But in the absence of a mass movement, BP will pay only minimally. The people, particularly those directly impacted by this disaster, cannot afford to wait for 20 years of litigation and then finally get paid a pittance for the life-altering consequences of this disaster. And, with a giant oil company on one side and poor and working people on the other, it is clear whose side the government will be on in any litigation.