British oil giant BP was temporarily banned from winning new US government contracts on Wednesday after agreeing to plead guilty to criminal charges over the deadly 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.
Two weeks after BP agreed to pay US$4.5 billion to settle criminal charges in the case, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said the firm was barred from obtaining new contracts until it can prove it meets US government business standards.
“The EPA is taking this action due to BP’s lack of business integrity as demonstrated by the company’s conduct with regard to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, explosion, oil spill and response,” the agency said in a statement.
The EPA cited BP’s admission of guilt on Nov. 15, to 11 counts of manslaughter, one count of felony obstruction of the US Congress and two environmental violations arising from the April 20, 2010, well blowout, which caused the worst ecological disaster in US history.
The blowout and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform left 11 people dead and spewed 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days, blackening beaches in five US states.
The EPA said the ban on BP and its affiliates from receiving federal contracts will continue “until the company can provide sufficient evidence to EPA demonstrating that it meets federal business standards.”
The order does not affect existing contracts.
BP said in a statement that it hopes to have the ban lifted as quickly as possible and has been working with the EPA to prove it can meet US federal standards.
However, BP’s legal woes are far from over. It must still resolve a civil case over environmental fines which could amount to as much as US$18 billion if gross negligence is found. It also remains on the hook for economic damages, including the cost of environmental recovery.
Earlier this year, BP reached an agreement to settle claims from fishermen and others affected by the disaster for US$7.8 billion, but the agreement must still be approved by a US federal judge.
BP has signaled it will continue to aggressively pursue damages from rig operator Transocean and well operations subcontractor Halliburton, which BP blames for faulty work leading up to the blowout.
In New Orleans, Robert Kaluza, 62, and Donald Vidrine, 65 — the highest-ranking BP supervisors onboard the Deepwater Horizon platform at the time of the deadly blast — pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to felony manslaughter charges.
Prosecutors said the men had ignored “glaring red flags that the well was not secure” and failed to take “appropriate action” to prevent the blowout, but their defense lawyers said they are being used as scapegoats.
“The problem with this is that Congress and others demand human flesh to pay for terrible casualties like this,” Kaluza’s lawyer, Bob Habans, told reporters on the courthouse steps.
“This time they chose Donald Vidrine and Bob Kaluza as the scapegoats,” he said.
Kaluza and Vidrine face up to 10 years in prison on each of 11 counts of seaman’s manslaughter and eight years in prison on each of 11 counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Former senior BP executive David Rainey was charged in a separate indictment with obstructing a congressional investigation, making false statements to law enforcement officials and for allegedly downplaying the extent of the spill.
Rainey faces five years in prison if convicted.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”