By Dan Satherley
BP has been caught out trying to influence scientific research into the consequences of last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Internal memos obtained by Greenpeace USA under the Freedom of Information Act show BP officials discussing how they could influence research being conducted by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GRI).
"Can we 'direct' GRI funding to a specific study? What influence do we have over the vessels/equipment driving the studies vs the questions?" asks BP environmental expert Russell Putt in one of the memos.
GRI was founded last May to conduct independent research into the likely fallout of the disaster, and funded by BP to the tune of US$500 million. The memos have raised questions over how much influence BP had over scientists conducting the research.
Other documents detail how the White House clashed with environmental agencies over official versions of what happened to the oil once it was in the ocean, and meetings in which BP executives discussed what kinds of studies would best serve the company.
In total, Greenpeace USA says only a "fraction" of their requests have been answered, but already they have over 30,000 pages of documents.
Greenpeace here says BP's actions are a warning of what to expect if something should go wrong with any offshore drilling started by Brazilian company Petrobras, which is currently testing New Zealand waters.
“The oil spill is the worst in US history and has become totemic of the deep sea oil drilling industry," says Nathan Argent, "yet our own Government seems hell-bent on inviting a similar disaster here. The Deepwater Horizon, an exploratory well, was drilling in 1500m of water when it exploded. But Petrobras is currently surveying in up to 3000m of water."
By the end of last year, BP had spent around US$12 billion in costs related to the spill, out of an estimated eventual bill of US$30 - $40 billion.
The GRI has since established new procedures to ward off interference in its work, which hopes to establish better methods in cleaning up future spills.
But Greenpeace says we shouldn't even take the risk.
“Even if a spill never occurs, we know that creating new frontiers in oil exploration will only make the climate crisis worse," says Mr Argent. "And climate change, more than anything else, is driving economic transformation everywhere.”
Greenpeace activists across the country will be marking the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon spill tomorrow.
3 News