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(The Scotsman) – The confusion was only added to by the revelations about Mr Blair’s involvement. The draft invite asked the former prime minister to come to Washington to elaborate on “your involvement with and knowledge of communication between BP, the government of Libya, the Government of the United Kingdom, and the Scottish Government regarding the decision to release al-Megrahi”.
The US Senate foreign relations committee offered to pay Mr Blair’s air fare and help with logistical arrangements, while praising his “long proven record on human rights”.
But the committee now insists the draft letter was unauthorised and mistakenly given to the press. Committee staff director Frank Lowenstein made a statement hours after the letter was released. He said: “Let me state unequivocally that prime minister Blair will not be asked to testify by the foreign affairs committee at the upcoming hearing on the Megrahi affair.”
The move prompted claims from the SNP last night that the committee had crumbled under pressure in Washington to keep Mr Blair’s hands clean.
Christine Grahame, SNP MSP said; “It is ludicrous that when the committee clearly says it wants to focus on the $900 million BP oil deal with Libya, and if there was a connection with the Prisoner Transfer Agreement and Megrahi, it is not asking to speak to the man responsible – Tony Blair.”
Jack Straw admits to deal with Libya: Britain agreed to back down over transfer of prisoners [2009]
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(Malta Today) – BP is set top start deep-water drilling off the coast of Libya within weeks in spite of concerns about the UK group’s environmental and safety record after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster, the Financial Times has reported.
At 1,700 metres below sea-level in Libya’s Gulf of Sirte, the well is expected to be 200 metres deeper than the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico which triggered the worst US offshore oil spill disaster when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 people.
“Drilling will start within a few weeks,” BP confirmed.
Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive, signed the US$900m exploration agreement with Libya in 2007, calling it BP’s biggest single such commitment. The company has since revealed that it lobbied the UK government that year over convicted Lockerbie bomber Al Meghahi transfer agreement between Britain and Libya.
GULF OF SIRTE
The spot where BP will drill its first exploratory well lies inside the “Line of Death” proclaimed by Muammer Gaddafi in the 1980s in claiming Libya’s total rights over the Gulf of Sirte. It is the area to which, in 1986, Ronald Reagan, the then US president, dispatched naval forces to challenge the Libyan leader’s claims, sinking two Libyan naval vessels and killing more than 30 Libyans.
BP to start Libya exploratory drilling in 2010
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
(WSJ Online) – A critical alarm system that should have warned workers of danger aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig had been disabled before the rig erupted into flames on April 20, the vessel’s chief electrician testified at a federal hearing into the accident.
Michael Williams, an employee of Transocean Ltd., the company that owned the rig, said the general alarm system aboard the Deepwater Horizon had been “inhibited.” It was intended to automatically sound an alarm warning workers to move immediately out of harm’s way.
But Mr. Williams said the automatic system had been switched off because Transocean rig managers “did not want people woken up at 3 a.m. with false alarms.” Instead, the rig-wide alarm had to be triggered manually–and never sounded.
Many workers aboard the rig said that they had no advance notice there was a serious problem with the well until after a surge of natural gas set off the first of two massive explosions. Eleven workers died before the rig sank and unleashed the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
Mr. Williams, who filed a lawsuit against Transocean in federal court in New Orleans on April 29, said he voiced concerns about the alarm system to his supervisors. He was testifying Friday at a hearing in Kenner, La. which is being conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
4 TRANSOCEAN WITNESSES DECLINED TO APPEAR
Four Transocean witnesses declined to appear voluntarily at the hearings before a joint U.S. panel convened by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement.
The board on Thursday declared two BP officials ‘parties of interest’ in the investigation, after they declined to appear.
The panel will convene for another week of hearings in Houston from August 23 to 27, where high-level managers from BP and Transocean are scheduled to testify.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
(BBC News) – BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward has been negotiating the terms of his exit, with a formal announcement likely within 24 hours. Mr Hayward has been widely criticised over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
BBC business editor Robert Peston said it was likely he would be replaced by his US colleague Bob Dudley, now in charge of the clean-up operation.
BP is due to release its results for the second quarter on Tuesday. It is expected to reveal a provision of up to $30bn (£19bn) for the costs of capping the well, compensation claims and fines to be paid, resulting in a massive quarterly loss.
The congressmen were unimpressed by the answers they received from the BP boss at a congressional committee on energy and commerce hearing last month.
They accused him of “stonewalling” questions and of “kicking the can [of responsibility] down the road”.
Mr Hayward had already been lambasted for saying that he “just wanted his life back ” and that the Gulf is a “big ocean” following the leak.
BP boss Tony Hayward’s gaffes
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Senate inquiries are a waste. They either go soft on everything or become witchhunts.
To be honest what business is it of the senate to investigate deals between foreign governments anyway. That is surely something for the respective governments or an international body.