Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Who's Responsible?

11 deceased employees, dead sea turtles, the shrimp industry at a stand still, tourism fearing the pinch, the Gulf of Mexico slowly swallowed by the worst U.S. environmental disaster, but who's responsible? BP takes full responsibility for the oil spill clean up efforts even though the source of the Deepwater Horizon explosion has not been reached.

Oil killing sea turtles? Tests will conclude whether or not sea turtles died from the oil spill, when the results come in. No one truly knows what effect the oil will have on shrimp season even though fishing is restricted at this time. The most profitable in tourism, summer, has not arrived yet to conclude a loss in tourism. What's with all the fear?

Deepwater Horizon oil spill has surpassed the 11 million gallons Exxon Valdez released, a real concern for life surrounding the Gulf Coast.

In one clean up tactic chemicals were tossed into the plan to keep oil from reaching the surface of the Gulf. Will we begin seeing dolphins with a third eye? Highly doubt it. Other BP strategies include lowering a 74-ton siphon box to transport the oil spill into a barge. That is, when the barge arrives in a week. Until then fishermen are being hired to assist in the clean up process as reported by USA Today.

BP, British Petrolium, is the fourth largest company in the world. In 2006 BP closed 12 of 57 Alaskan wells due to Arctic pack leaks. The closures were a drop in the bucket by only 10,000 barrels compared to the 2,000 wells they functioned at that time according to Guardian. It just proves that BP could close down a third of their production and still survive, fruitfully.

Let's face it, BP has the funds to clean up the Deepwater Horizon disaster, dish out cash to every victim and pay for all parking tickets for each citizen in New York. The recent news reflects BP forking out top dollar for clean up efforts but little about victims or parking tickets. BP has invested $6 million a day to clean up the Gulf oil spill.

But BP's equipment from a Texas-based Halliburton Co. enters the investigation at a time when BP attempts to cap the oil leak in the Gulf.

The Wall Street Journal credits oil drill experts for connecting the Halliburton angle. Drill experts suggest the cementing process potentially contributed to the explosion. It makes sense considering Halliburton's history.

Halliburton's reputation was somewhat damaged last year after a blowout that dumped massive oil for over ten weeks off of Australia's coast. Ironic enough WSJ reported of a retired U.S. Minerals Management Service head suspecting the cementing process in connection.

Halliburton is not "just" another company.

Halliburton was even mentioned by Osama Bin Laden in 2004. BBC supplies the detailed message as Bin Laden sheds credit on big money industries such as Halliburton. Three words come to mind, "Dick Cheney, Iran and Halliburton" - look it up.

Halliburton has 300 subsidiaries as they are the second largest oilfield services corporation in the world. Halliburton is a powerhouse of oil services, overwhelming profits - and yes, potential contributors to a couple of alleged blowouts across the globe.

Queston is, if we were to send a drilling team into outer space on an asteroid to blow it up should we use Halliburton in producing the process? Sounds good to me. Why not? It may save time on building a nuclear bomb.

However, we cannot escape the facts - Halliburton cannot be held accountable for certain premature accusations, as obvious as the answer may appear. No one knows what killed the marine life yet. No one can say just how shrimp industry will supply. The summer isn't here yet to provide tourism loss. And until it has been confirmed that Halliburton did, in fact, play part within the explosion through the cementing process - they can simply thumb their nose up at finger pointing.

As for now BP is stepping up to the financial plate of the oil spill and hoping to hit a home run in the source of the recent Deepwater Horizon blowout that continues to pour over 200,000 gallons of oil a day since April 20, 2010.

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Source(s): "Drilling Process Attracts Scrutiny", The Wall Street Journal; "Urgency Increases", USA Today; "BP shuts leaking Alaskan wells", Guardian; "Bin Laden", BBC (accessed May 3, 2010)