From: Greenpeace via Jym Dyer <jym@mica.berkeley.edu>
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive,alt.activism,sci.energy,talk.environment
Subject: NEWS: British Petroleum Tanker Disaster Policy:  "Keep our Heads Down"
Followup-To: sci.energy,talk.environment
Date: 25 Jan 1993 06:03:24 GMT
Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
Keywords: environment oil press

[Greenpeace Press Release from Greenbase -- Redistribute Freely]

GREENPEACE CONDEMNS OIL INDUSTRY POLICY OF
"KEEPING HEADS DOWN" OVER TANKER DISASTERS

LONDON 14 January 1993 (GP) Top BP managers advised staff to
"keep their heads down" over the Braer oil tanker disaster
last week, Greenpeace revealed today.
  
In an internal BP memo about the disaster, leaked to Greenpeace,
BP told staff:  "The message of course is -- let's keep our
heads down."
  
Greenpeace today condemned the resounding silence from the oil
industry over the disaster when:
  
*  The 10 worst oil disasters (including tanker spills) have all
happened in the last 15 years, and accounted for 845.8 million
gallons of oil being released into the environment (1)
  
*  the top 14 tanker spills in the last 15 years accounted for
339.8 million gallons (1)
  
*  there are 6,833 tankers carrying 500,000 barrels of oil at any
one time (2) and
  
*  less than 3 per cent of oil tankers have double hulls (3)
recommended to lessen the chances of oil spills in the event of
an accident.

"BP claims to be 'responsible and caring,' has a policy of
'openness and honesty' and has 'nothing to hide' (4).  This
memo shows the oil industry in its true colours:  a greenwash,"
said Andrea Goodall, of Greenpeace International.

On the question of double hulls, which would cost the industry
tens of billions of dollars, BP staff are advised that the
information is "not, repeat not, for the press", but that "more
attention should be paid internationally to the prevention of
accidents and that action should be taken in the areas of better
traffic control, better ship navigation and improved training
for personnel."

Further information leaked from BP reveals that the Braer called
into BP's Sullom Voe oil terminal six times since last March.

BP oil facts: 

*  BP's net income in 1991 was $US 1,200 million (latest figures
available) (5)
*  Every year, BP loses an average of 125,000 tonnes of crude oil
in transit (6)
*  BP Exploration spilled 15-30 tonnes of crude oil at Sullom Voe
Terminal, off the Shetland Islands in 1991 (7)
*  BP was sued in 1990 as a result of the Exxon Valdez disaster,
as part of the Alyeska Pipeline Company.

"It's time the oil industry executives accepted responsibility
for the environmental abuse it creates, rather than keeping
their heads down and trying to make it somebody else's problem,"
said Andrea Goodall.


(1)  "Oil Spill Intelligence Report," Arlington, Massachusetts,
     USA
(2)  Lloyds List
(3)  The Tanker Register 1992 (Clarkson Research Studies Ltd)
(4)  "Towards a Better World - special issue of health, safety
     and the environment," BP Chemicals, February 1991.
(5)  Fortune 500 1992
(6)  The Journal of BP Oil, first quarter No. 9, 1991
(7)  Oil and Gas Journal, 1991, International Briefs, 28 January
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive