Skip to footer

Gulf oil spill: BP sues US government over federal contracts

Oil giant BP is suing the US government for blocking the company from bidding on and securing new federal contracts. The suspension came as BP was in the midst of negotiating an agreement with the EPA for its involvement in the Deepwater Horizon spill.

|
Jon Super/AP/File
Vehicles pass a BP gastation in Manchester, England.
  • By James Burgess Guest blogger

On Monday BP filed a case against the US Federal Government, citing the decision to block BP from bidding on and securing new lucrative contracts to supply fuel and other services. In relation to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP has pleaded guilty, admitting to charges of manslaughter and obstruction of justice, and based on this the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided to prevent the company from winning any new contracts.

BP claims that this is abuse of the EPAs power.

BP has asked a judge at the US District Court in Huston to lift the suspension and allow them to bid on the new contracts, claiming that they have already missed out on potentially billions of dollars of business with the government.

BP was in the midst of negotiating an agreement with the EPA for its involvement in the Deepwater Horizon spill, when the suspension was placed upon them last November, preventing them from bidding on new contracts worth as much as $1.9 billion dollars. 

The contracts were with the Defense Logistics Agency, a support unit that provides the Navy, Air Force, Marines Crops, and other federal agencies with logistical and technical services. (Related article: Junior Time in the Gulf of Mexico Shelf)

BP has been a major supplier of fuel to the US military for many years, holding contracts with the government that are worth more than $1.34 billion, and through which it supplies jet fuel, marine diesel fuel, aviation fuel, commercial airport refuelling services, bulk fuel storage, lubricants, and natural gas.

On the 29th of January BP pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter, obstruction of Congress, and other criminal charges, and agreed to pay a $4 billion penalty charge to the Justice Department. The EPA has said that until BP can settle an administrative agreement, the suspension will continue in affect, although in this recent case filing, BP claim that the suspension should have ended with the end of the criminal case.

In March the Interior Department told BP that it may bid in a Gulf of Mexico lease sale, however if successful and still considered under the power of the EPA suspension, the lease would have to be disqualified.

Original Article: http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/BP-Not-Going-Down-Without-a-Fight-Set-to-Sue-the-Federal-Government.html

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Gulf oil spill: BP sues US government over federal contracts
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2013/0814/Gulf-oil-spill-BP-sues-US-government-over-federal-contracts
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe