The officials at the oil giant British Petroleum (BP) cannot stop wishing these days- How would their life be if the April 20 disaster had never happened? For what started with an explosion aboard a drilling rig and triggered a massive oil spill has snowballed into one of the worst environmental tragedies ever. The cost of the clean up for BP has already reached $1.3 billion and is increasing rapidly by every passing day. Not only this the regulators in the US are doing their bit to ensure that BP assume even greater liabilities and that BP is forced to suspend any payment of dividend to its shareholders until the full cost of liability is paid.
In this time of crisis, it is easy to point fingers on BP placing the entire responsibility on the company. But what are the lessons in store for the future?
First and foremost, the drilling companies must be given a regulatory approval only when it is evident that they are using the most safe practices for drilling and are also investing a considerable amount of resources into developing even safer practices.
Secondly, a company must present some effective measures with the regulators in case something goes terribly wrong.
Also, the companies need to watch their responses when reacting to something as tragic as this so as not to hurt the sentiments of those affected by it. (BP Chief Tony Hayward called the leak “a very tiny one”).
Last but not the least, its high time that we look beyond our adventurous operations to find fossil fuels and look for cleaner sources of energy.
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