Daily Archives: July 21, 2010

Erasing the mistakes: BP’s lessons in Photoshop

July 21, 2010 4:52 pm by Anjli Raval

The altered image, © BP p.l.c.

Just when it seemed BP had reversed some of the PR damages of the spill, it appears to have hit trouble yet again.

Courtesy of AP, BP has acknowledged that an altered photo exaggerating the activity at its Gulf spill command centre in Houston was been posted on its website over the weekend.

The picture which showed BP staff monitoring a bank of ten large video screens displaying underwater images, had three that were blank in the original, said spokeperson Scott Dean.

The original picture, © BP p.l.c.

A staff photographer had then used Photoshop software to add extra images.

Mr Dean said on Tuesday the company put the unaltered picture up on BP’s website on Monday after a blogger for the Americablog wrote about the discrepancies.

Mr Dean added that the photographer was showing off his Photoshop skills and there was no ill intent. He also said BP has ordered workers to use Photoshop only for things like color correction, cropping and removing glare.

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Energy ministers’ summit ends with promises and initiatives

July 21, 2010 3:43 pm by Fiona Harvey

Ten exciting new initiatives! Those are the results from the first “Clean Energy Ministerial” summit held in Washington DC on Monday and Tuesday.

The initiatives, we are told, will do all of the following: cut energy waste; help deploy smart grid, electric vehicle, and carbon capture technologies; support renewable energy markets; expand access to clean energy resources and jobs; and support women pursuing careers in clean energy.

If they are all successful, they will “eliminate the need to build more than 500 mid-sized power plants worldwide in the next 20 years”.

Continue reading: “Energy ministers’ summit ends with promises and initiatives”

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More criticism of BP’s drilling practices, but this time from a competitor

July 21, 2010 12:35 pm by Akanksha Awal

Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, of which Shell is a sponsor, Joe Leimkuhler and John Hollowell of Shell Upstream Americas explained the engineering behind deep-sea oil drilling.

In this informative and clear presentation (watch video below: provided courtesy of Aspen Ideas Festival) Mr. Leimkuhler details best off-shore drilling practices in the industry. He highlights, in a side by side comparison with Shell’s own design, how BP’s Macondo well lacked crucial fail-safe safety mechanisms, which according to him, comprise Shell’s global standards in offshore drilling.

In response to the US authorities’ efforts in seeking a moratorium on all deepwater drilling, Mr. Leimkuhler defended Shell’s wells and called on a moratorium on off-shore drilling using the cheaper “long string” design wells, like the Macondo Well. These currently account for 26 percent of all off-shore wells that have been drilled in the Gulf of Mexico since 2003, including two that Shell has drilled itself.

The presentation is part of a concerted effort by Shell to advertise its offshore drilling safety standards, and to differentiate itself from BP.

When the Alaskan communities expressed concern over the safety of offshore drilling standards, Pete Slaiby, the vice-president of Shell Alaska told the BBC: