British Petroleum Plc has suspended all efforts to stop the flow of oil from the gusher that has been spewing since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20. Bloomberg News Service reports that the company "has decided not to attach a second blowout preventer on its leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico and efforts to end the flow are over until the relief wells are finished, according to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Thad Allen, who spoke at a press conference today."
Those relief wells are expected to be up and running at about the end of August.
Over the weeks that have transpired since the "accident," I've heard a few conspiracy theory-type rumors that the company never intended to stop the flow, and that their plan from the beginning has been to deal with it by drilling a replacement well, so that they wouldn't lose the anticipated revenue from Deepwater Horizon. Being as how the replacement well is also anticipated as a remedy which will potentially end the ongoing disaster, it wouldn't have to go through the long permitting process that would ordinarily attend the launch of such a project.
So is this suspicions confirmed?
In other news, Attorney-General Eric Holder announced today that the Justice Department is launching a criminal investigation into the Deepwater Horizon spill.
Update: Thanks to John Cole at balloon-juice.com for the tip that BP's stock has been falling like a stone since the Justice Department announcement earlier today. From the AP story on Yahoo!'s financial page:
On the business side of things, the company's share price, which has fallen steadily since the start of the disaster, took a turn for the worse Tuesday, losing 15 percent to $6.13 in early afternoon trading on the London Stock Exchange.
That was the lowest level in more than a year. The shares have now lost more than a third of their value, wiping some $63 billion off BP's value, since the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig six weeks ago.
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy than Tony Hayward.
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