Tag Archive: Gulf of Mexico


AP

Two men who worked for BP during the 2010 Gulf oil spill disaster have been charged with manslaughter and a third with lying to federal investigators, according to indictments made public Thursday, hours after BP announced it was paying $4.5 billion in a settlement with the U.S. government over the disaster.

A federal indictment unsealed in New Orleans claims BP well site leaders Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine acted negligently in their supervision of key safety tests performed on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig before the explosion killed 11 workers in April 2010. The indictment says Kaluza and Vidrine failed to phone engineers onshore to alert them of problems in the drilling operation.
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ESR Hurricane HD

Tropical Storm Isaac strengthened slightly as it spun toward the Dominican Republic and Haiti, but seemed unlikely to gain enough steam early Friday to strike the island of Hispaniola as a hurricane.

The storm’s failure to gain the kind of strength in the Caribbean that forecasters initially projected made it more likely that Isaac won’t become a hurricane until it enters the Gulf of Mexico, said Eric Blake, a forecaster with U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
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AP, NWS

Tropical Storm Ernesto strengthened into a hurricane and headed toward landfall near Mexico’s border with Belize Tuesday, bringing the threat of powerful winds and torrential rains to the Caribbean coast.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Ernesto had winds of 80 mph (129 kph) and was located about 185 miles (298 kilometers) east of Chetumal, Mexico.

Soldiers and police were moving 600 residents from the fishing village of Punta Allen in Mexico’s Quintana Roo state, where authorities opened emergency shelters and began preparing for the evacuation of other low-lying coastal settlements.
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ESR Graphic

During its entire life from its pre-T.D. formative stages through now, Ernesto has been ebbing and flowing between tightening up and looking more impressive, and not being able to sustain that and instead struggling to be anything more than an energetic tropical wave.

Today, it’s decidedly in the latter mode, in fact the latest aircraft recon which is investigating the storm has had a hard time finding any westerly winds, which are necessary for a “closed” circulation, an essential characteristic of a tropical cyclone, and the convection is quite ragged, and there’s a low cloud swirl — what “center” there is — “exposed” on visible satellite imagery.
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AP (Houston)

For hours after their boat sank, Ken Henderson and Ed Coen treaded water in the Gulf of Mexico, talking about life and death while struggling to survive. For more than 30 hours, it worked.

Then Henderson was forced to make a decision that would save his life, but not his best friend’s. View full article »

Reuters

BP said it was preparing “vigorously” for lawsuits related to its Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which are due to start later this month, as it unveiled a rise in fourth-quarter earnings boosted by higher oil prices and one-off gains.

Chief Executive Bob Dudley said on Tuesday BP was ready to settle on “fair and reasonable terms” but added he was also ready to fight. View full article »

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