What is BP doing?

British Petroleum makes baby seal clubbers look like PETA activists. What?

The friendly folks over at BP have gone through great marketing lengths to look like the big oil company that cares. Check out their website. They have this new green logo that resembles a beautiful flower, wow there are links about their concern for climate change, oooh responsible operations, and look smiling workers in hard hats – guess they were the ones who didn’t perish in the Texas refinery explosion…

A court U.S. Federal court ruling paints a different picture of this caring, responsible, eco-friendly oil company. Read the The Wall Street Journal article. Yes, BP was ordered to pay civil and criminal charges of $373 million in relation to gas price manipulation in 2004, a refinery explosion in Texas that killed 15 workers in 2005, and an oil spill in Alaska in 2006. What fun can we expect from BP in 2007?

This record kind of goes against the image that the marketing department is going after. Seems that BP hit the lawsuit TRIFECTA - injuring customers, workers, and the environment in only 3 years.

Call it a dynasty of death.

No wonder they changed their logo, but I don’t think the flower’s going to cut it, unless you change it red and orange so it can symbolize a massive explosion.

For a real good time you should take a look at BP’s press release of the court ruling. I like all the apologies and admissions of guilt - "These agreements are an admission that, in these instances, our operations failed to meet our own standards and the requirements of the law. For that, we apologize." Under this type of language, a jewel thief didn’t steal but “failed to meet the requirement of paying the vender for goods acquired.”

Here’s what they say about the deadly explosion:

"BP Products North America Inc. will plead guilty to a felony for failing to have adequate written procedures for maintaining the ongoing mechanical integrity of process equipment at the Texas City refinery and for failing to inform contractors of the hazards related to their occupancy of temporary trailers in the vicinity of the refinery's Isomerization Unit."

Isomerization unit? Guess that’s press-release speak for “Whoops, our crappy factory just exploded.”

Or in the case of the pipeline oil spill – “the company's approach to monitoring and managing corrosion in Prudhoe Bay oil transit lines failed to properly consider the risks posed by changing operating conditions in the field..."

That sounds better than “Because of neglect, there is a giant hole in our pipeline and poison is gushing into the pristine waters of Prudhoe Bay.”

Well, everyone knows how cheap oil is these days and how energy companies are struggling to make money - how can anyone expect them to keep their infrastructure safe and up to date?