BP fined for 2016 North sea oil leak of 95 tonnes of oil

Destination

Destination

Destination

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BP fined for 2016 North sea oil leak of 95 tonnes of oil

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...charge-in-north-sea/ar-BB17hqKy?ocid=msedgntp

Almost an RSS feed, but when i read the article I was astounded that the fine was £7000.
It seems an astonishing small amount of money to find a company for this.
I'd be amazed if their legal team didn't charge more to defend them, or if the investigation into the incident cost more to investigate, even whilst pleading guilty.
 
AN oil tanker can hold around 318,000 tonne's of oil (citation), 95 tonnes is 0.03% of that, so whilst it's a lot of oil, in the grand scheme of things it's a mere drop..

Still £7K seems incredibly low.. If I spilled that much I'd not only be fined but have to pay to have it cleaned up etc..
 
The size of the company doesn't dictate the punishment, it's the size and impact of the incident.

It was a fairly significant amount by PON1 standards and the one major factor that averted a disaster for Shetland's coast was the weather. The spill was sent North by a fairly strong wind/seastate and dissipated naturally.
 
Legal costs would be far more than that. £7k to the fourth-largest oil and gas company in terms of revenue seems almost comical.
 
It is comical. Courts don’t treat environmental and wildlife crime seriously.

Just like this case: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....-london-hog-kong-53-million-a4356921.html?amp

How on earth you can get such a lenient sentence for the harm caused in that case is beyond me. The man that peed next to the memorial and the man that pushed the footballer over got immediate custodial sentences when the harm in this case was so much greater.
 
I think the important part is the lesson learned. We all use oil, even if you don't have a car, so as much as people want to fine the evil oil companies when something goes wrong, we do rely on them. Obviously in this case it was quite a small mistake and not much damage done in the grand scheme so the fine reflects that.
 
Roar87 said:
I think the important part is the lesson learned. We all use oil, even if you don't have a car, so as much as people want to fine the evil oil companies when something goes wrong, we do rely on them. Obviously in this case it was quite a small mistake and not much damage done in the grand scheme so the fine reflects that.
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Absolutely spot on.

It actually cost the oil company millions, even if the fine was only £7,000. There was no environmental damage and they spent a lot of cash automating the process afterwards and that's why the fine is low.
 
Praise be that we have a relatively fair and just criminal justice system. If £7k was the right fine in law then that's what they should have got. 95 tonnes in the words of the investigator for the Crown had no significant impact in this case. They had a procedure it just wasn't as good as it should have been. They've improved it. It wasn't the case that they hadn't considered the risk or taken any action. Let's not lose our sense of propotion just because it's a big company.

Companies like BP take envirmonmental permits incredibly seriously and will act to reduce prevent any exceedances tot heir permit and spend a lot of money to do so. They have big reputational, commercial as well as legal concerns over pollution breeches and treat them seriously.
 
Destination said:
BP fined for 2016 North sea oil leak of 95 tonnes of oil

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/bp-fined-£7000-over-crude-oil-discharge-in-north-sea/ar-BB17hqKy?ocid=msedgntp

Almost an RSS feed, but when i read the article I was astounded that the fine was £7000.
It seems an astonishing small amount of money to find a company for this.
I'd be amazed if their legal team didn't charge more to defend them, or if the investigation into the incident cost more to investigate, even whilst pleading guilty.
Click to expand...

Astonishingly tiny fine for... an astonishingly tiny amount of oil released? I'd agree the legal costs are probably greater than the fine (or the value of the oil). So all a bit pointless really (unless you're a lawyer in which case its probably highly lucrative and in your interest to challenge the judgment etc, its a veritable gold mine (or should that be oil field?))
 
PlacidCasual said:
Praise be that we have a relatively fair and just criminal justice system. If £7k was the right fine in law then that's what they should have got. 95 tonnes in the words of the investigator for the Crown had no significant impact in this case. They had a procedure it just wasn't as good as it should have been. They've improved it. It wasn't the case that they hadn't considered the risk or taken any action. Let's not lose our sense of propotion just because it's a big company.

Companies like BP take envirmonmental permits incredibly seriously and will act to reduce prevent any exceedances tot heir permit and spend a lot of money to do so. They have big reputational, commercial as well as legal concerns over pollution breeches and treat them seriously.
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You sound like a PR spokesperson.
 
Seems like a ridiculously small amount of oil? From a quick looks appears to be about 2 - 3 truck's worth. I can see the outrage is strong though, this place is worse than Twitter sometimes
 
diamount said:
You sound like a PR spokesperson.
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Nope a chartered engineer for a large company that has to make the kind or decisions that can lead to environment of health and safety hazards being avoided or coming to fruition. I have to take that responsibility to provide services that every person in the UK uses but don't want to pay much for. Less engineers, less budgets and ever higher expectations on permit and safety compliance (which I don't object to). If justice should be decided by the whims of the baying mob it would be utterly intolerable and companies acting in a genuinely moral and reasonable way would be excessively punished for PR rather than balanced legal reasons.

edit:typo
 
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