American Petroleum
In 1998, British Petroleum took over a huge American oil company, Amoco, which made up one-third of the new BP-Amoco – as it was briefly called before reverting just to BP.
It was the successor to the old Amoco part of the company which managed the Deepwater Horizon rig, and an American contractor which operated it. The US Coastguard and other American agencies regulated it.
We need these deep-water rigs because it is Americans who each still gobble up twice as much oil as Europeans and Japanese because of the absurd, swollen SUVs, pick-up trucks and Hummers which they still cruise around in. It was an American President, elected on a slogan of ‘Yes we can!’, who continues to encourage gas guzzling by failing to raise petrol taxes to sensible level.
And now it’s an American who has replaced a Briton at the head of BP to help assuage American public opinion. Feel better, guys?
