BP announced its 2013 first-quarter profits this morning, reporting earnings of $4.2 billion — down 10 percent from this time last year but higher than analysts’ forecasts.

Here are some key facts about BP’s profits:

• The company is sitting on nearly $28 billion in cash reserves.
• In the first three months of 2013, BP spent $834 million buying back its own stock.
• Meanwhile, worldwide oil production decreased to 2.3 million barrels per day, 5 percent lower than the first quarter of 2012.
• BP’s CEO Bob Dudley raked in $2.7 million in 2012.
• In 2012, BP gave over $400,000 in federal campaign contributions, with 59 percent going to Republicans. They also spent nearly $9 million on lobbying.
• The company received an estimated $300 million annual tax break for 2011.

April 20th marked the third anniversary of BP’s Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers and spewed 210 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico over the course of 87 days.

In November 2012, BP agreed to pay a $4.5 billion settlement in criminal charges related to the spill: the largest criminal penalty in history. But a separate, and much larger civil trial, is still underway for Clean Water Act violations and is expected to continue well into this year. Record-setting fines for this trial could reach up to $17 billion if BP is found guilty of gross negligence. On top of that, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi are seeking an additional $34 billion for economic and property damage under the Oil Pollution Act.

The Daily Beast recently detailed the extreme health effects related to pouring 1.8 million gallons of toxic chemicals into the ocean in the wake of the spill. Corexit, a “dispersant,” was used to keep oil from reaching the Gulf Coast shorelines. In the process, it caused lasting neurological impairments, pulmonary problems, and many other serious ailments for hundreds of cleanup workers and coastal residents. The author, Mark Hertsgaard, explained that BP officials were told exactly how hazardous the chemical was, and lied about it. He told MSNBC in a recent interview that it will be an uphill battle for many people who have incurred huge hospital bills and are still suffering. “BP set aside roughly $8 billion for medical claims,” he said, “but most of the illnesses that these people are suffering from are not covered under that settlement.”

The BP disaster had a deep and lasting health and economic impacts throughout the Gulf Coast region. However, a recent column in the Wall Street Journal editorialized that drilling activity there hasn’t changed much since 2010. The Obama administration’s “toughened” drilling regulations “have amounted to little more than a speed bump for the energy industry,” which is “booming in the Gulf of Mexico.”

The next, and last, of the Big Five companies to announce its first quarter profit will be Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday May 2nd.

By Shiva Polefka

Today, Saturday, April 20th, marks the third anniversary of the explosion aboard BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers and set off the largest accidental spill in the oil industry’s history. The ruptured Macondo well spewed nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil over the course of the summer, ultimately fouling more than 1,000 miles of Gulf of Mexico coastline and bringing the vast fishing and tourism industries of the region to a standstill, before the Macondo well was finally sealed and “killed” on September 19, 2010.

Following the Deepwater Horizon blowout, President Obama appointed a panel of experts that convened as the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. Its final report, issued in January 2011, revealed the irresponsible practices of BP and its contractors, uncovered a lack of federal oversight, and provided a comprehensive set of policy reforms that would make the offshore energy industry safer.

Earlier this week, members of the Commission, now acting independently as a group called Oil Spill Commission Action (OSCA), released their second “Report Card” on the progress major actors were making to implement their recommendations.

So, three years after the catastrophe, what has changed? Have we acted on the painful lessons taught by Deepwater Horizon? Are government and industry leaders taking steps to reduce the risk of another destructive spill or blowout? The answers are decidedly mixed.

Department of the Interior and Industry

OSCA awarded the Obama administration a B, in recognition that the Department of the Interior has enacted some of the safety reforms recommended within the official report, and brought about a 15 percent increase in offshore rig inspections occurring in the Gulf.

OSCA gave the oil industry a B-, noting that it has voluntarily contributed in meaningful ways to the reduction of risk future oil spills in response to Deepwater Horizon, by implementing new safety standards and readying four oil well capping systems for the Gulf of Mexico like the one ultimately used to stanch the Macondo well’s blowout. Before Deepwater Horizon, no such systems existed.

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By Shiva Polefka, Michael Conathan, and Kiley Kroh

In November 2012, BP settled the Justice Department’s criminal case against it in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, agreeing to pay $4.5 billion in fines and admit it was guilty of 11 counts of manslaughter. But that 10-figure deal was just the tip of the iceberg.

Yesterday, the civil trial to assess BP’s violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act began in New Orleans, a process that will end with additional fines that could exceed four times that amount.

The civil trial will determine responsibility for an unprecedented environmental disaster, in which BP’s high-pressure Macondo well ruptured and discharged nearly 5 billion gallons of crude oil in to the Gulf of Mexico — as well as the amount of fines the company must pay to the U.S. Federal government, Gulf Coast states, and municipalities for violations of federal environmental law.

If Federal District Judge Carl J. Barbier agrees with the Justice Department that BP was grossly negligent in its handling of the blowout and oil spill, the London-based oil giant could face more than $17 billion dollars in federal fines under the Clean Water Act. While this would be a record fine under the statute, it corresponds to the unprecedented scale of the environmental disaster the company caused, because responsible parties are charged per barrel of oil spilled. And it would still be significantly less than the $26 billion in profit BP amassed in 2011 alone.

In addition, Gulf Coast states are seeking more than $34 billion in damages under the U.S. Oil Pollution Act, which was passed in response to Exxon’s 1990 spill in Valdez, Alaska. The OPA explicitly authorizes U.S. states to impose their own fines and penalties on parties deemed responsible for oil spills that affect them.

Continuing its effort to shift blame for the accident, BP argues that it was not grossly negligent, and that its contractors Halliburton and TransOcean instead share significant responsibility for the spill. TransOcean, from whom BP leased the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, settled with the Justice Department in November of 2012, admitting criminal and civil violations and agreeing to pay $1.4 billion in fines.

BP’s latest trial follows its settlement last fall of the US government’s criminal case against the company. In that agreement, BP pled guilty to 14 criminal counts stemming from accident, including manslaughter in the deaths of 11 oil rig workers that were killed when safety equipment failed, and the oil rig exploded and sank. BP also admitted to obstruction of Congress, for purposefully providing lawmakers with estimates of oil-discharge rates 10-times lower than what they knew was occurring. As part of the criminal settlement, BP agreed to pay $4.5 billion over 6 years.

Thanks to the RESTORE Act, which Congress passed and President Obama signed into law as part of a larger transportation bill in 2012, 80 percent of the civil fines paid by BP and other responsible parties will go directly to the affected Gulf Coast states to fund economic and environmental recovery — rather than going to the U.S. Treasury — making the ultimate decision in the current case a critical one for ecosystem and economic restoration in the Gulf. Analysis by the Center for American Progress indicates that by allocating the penalties to ecosystem restoration in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, the RESTORE Act will create thousands of jobs supporting and restoring industries that were devastated by the Deepwater Horizon disaster — such as tourism and fishing, which are cumulatively worth more than $25 billion per year to these states.

The first phase of the trial is expected to take three months, and will result in assignment of percentages of blame among the responsible parties. Reportedly, Judge Barbier has insisted he won’t let the trial drag on for years as occurred following 1989’s Valdez spill.

With funding to restore damaged ecosystems along the Gulf Coast hanging in the balance, Judge Barbier’s sense of urgency is welcome and warranted. Gulf Coast residents and the American public deserve a prompt, decisive and just resolution.

Shiva Polefka is the Ocean Program Research Associate, Michael Conathan is the Director of Ocean Policy, and Kiley Kroh is the Associate Director of Ocean Communications at the Center for American Progress.

By Jackie Weidman

Today, BP was the last of the Big Five Oil companies to announce its total 2012 earnings, raking in a net profit of $1.6 billion in the fourth quarter and bringing the company’s annual profits to $11.6 billion.

BP is one of the most profitable companies in the world, ranking fourth-highest on the Fortune 500 Global companies list. In November 2012, BP agreed to pay a $4.5 billion criminal fine -– the highest fine in U.S. history -– as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. The majority of the fine ($2.4 billion) will be used for restoration in the Gulf of Mexico, where 5 million barrels of oil flowed into the Gulf over 87 days. An estimated 1 million barrels of oil remain in the Gulf.

Below is a glimpse at how BP spent its billions in profits last year:

• BP received an estimated $200 million in tax breaks last year, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress.
• BP spent $8.9 million lobbying Congress in 2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
• BP spent nearly $450,000 on campaign contributions during the 2011-2012 election cycle.
• Almost two-thirds of their contributions went to Republican candidates.
• Meanwhile, BP’s oil production decreased by 8 percent, from 1.29 million barrels of net liquids (oil + natural gas) per day in 2011 to 1.18 million barrels per day in 2012.
• BP is sitting on cash reserves totaling $19.5 billion.

High oil and gasoline prices contributed to another year of huge profits for the Big Five Oil Companies: BP plc, Chevron Corp, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil Corp, and the Royal Dutch Shell Group. These companies earned a combined $119 billion in profits in 2012, while collecting an estimated $2.4 billion in annual tax breaks. Average gas prices hit a record high last year, enriching the biggest oil companies while hurting consumers’ wallets.

In November of last year, British oil giant BP agreed to a historic $4.5 billion criminal fine in the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers and blew 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

While BP owned the Macondo well and was in charge of onsite operations, it leased the Deepwater Horizon rig and its crew from Transocean Ltd., one of the world’s largest offshore drilling contractors. And yesterday, the Justice Department announced that Transocean agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle the investigation of its involvement in the oil spill.

From the DOJ:

Transocean Deepwater Inc. has signed a cooperation and guilty plea agreement with the government, also filed today, admitting its criminal conduct.   As part of the plea agreement, Transocean Deepwater Inc. has agreed, subject to the court’s approval, to pay $400 million in criminal fines and penalties and to continue its on-going cooperation in the government’s criminal investigation.

In addition, pursuant to the terms of a proposed partial civil consent decree also lodged with the court today, Transocean Ocean Holdings LLC, Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling Inc., Transocean Deepwater Inc. and Triton Asset Leasing GMBH have agreed to pay an additional $1 billion to resolve federal Clean Water Act civil penalty claims for the massive, three-month-long oil spill at the Macondo Well and the Transocean drilling rig Deepwater Horizon. Under the civil settlement, the Transocean defendants also must implement court-enforceable measures to improve the operational safety and emergency response capabilities at all their drilling rigs working in waters of the United States.

“This agreement holds Transocean criminally accountable for its conduct and provides nearly a billion dollars in criminal and civil penalties for the benefit of the Gulf states.” said Attorney General Eric Holder.

The settlement concluded the Justice Department’s investigation into Transocean’s responsibility for the spill, a question that was often fraught with accusations and counter-accusations between the contractor and BP.

The hostilities  began on the rig itself, as investigations revealed deep disagreements over operations in the run-up to the blow out. “This wasn’t our accident,” BP’s chief executive declared at one point, laying blame on Transocean’s systems, equipment and people. Transocean later accused BP of hoarding results and information from its own investigation into the spill. The finger pointing inspired President Obama to criticize both companies, calling the public argument a “ridiculous spectacle.”

Transocean has not faced any felony charges at the personell or corporate level, but BP has pleaded guilty to 12 felony counts including “seaman’s manslaughter” and obstruction of Congress, as well as two misdemeanor counts under the Clean Water Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Two of its site leaders have pleaded not guilty to multiple felony counts of manslaughter, and one of its executives pleaded not guilty to misleading a congressional subcommittee. The company could also face up to $20 billion in civil fines under the Clean Water Act.

As for Transocean, its stock rose 7 percent following yesterday’s settlement announcement.

by Kiley Kroh

Yesterday, the Justice Department announced BP agreed to plead guilty to 14 criminal charges stemming from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and agreed to pay $4.5 billion in fines and penalties – the largest single criminal fine and largest total criminal resolution in US history. Attorney General Eric Holder emphasized several times that the announcement is only one piece of the government’s ongoing efforts to hold BP fully accountable for the deaths of 11 men and one of the worst environmental disasters in US history.

Here’s a rundown of what the settlement entailed and what lies ahead.

What were the charges?

• BP plead guilty to 14 counts: 11 felony counts of misconduct for the 11 workers killed at the rig, one misdemeanor count under the Clean Water Act, one misdemeanor count under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and one felony count of obstruction of Congress.
• Three BP employees were also charged, two of them with manslaughter.

Where will the money go?

In addition to the size of today’s resolution, the settlement is also historic in its dedication of the majority of funds to the affected Gulf Coast states for environmental restoration.

• $2.4 billion will go to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, – an independent, non-profit conservation group chartered by Congress in 1984. The funds will be paid out over a period of five years and be earmarked for environmental restoration and preservation in Gulf states.
• $350 million will go to the National Academy of Sciences for oil spill prevention, education, research, and training – also to be paid out over five years.
• More than $1 billion will go to the Coast Guard’s Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, overseen by the U.S. Coast Guard to be available to pay for future oil spill cleanup.
• The oil giant will also pay $525 million to resolve claims with the Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading its investors regarding the size of the Deepwater Horizon spill.

What additional aspects of BP’s liability have not been resolved?

Yesterday’s settlement was just one step toward determining full liability for the catastrophe, with the largest potential penalties still remaining.

• Civil penalties under the Clean Water Act are the largest potential fine, as the company will be charged up to $4,300 per barrel of oil spilled.  Holder indicated that the government will pursue the maximum penalty, which could result in a fine as large as $21 billion.
• Federal and state Natural Resource Damages claims also remain outstanding. Historically, these have taken the longest to resolve. In the case of the Exxon Valdez spill, they took more than a decade to settle.
• State economic loss or private civil claims that aren’t covered by the $7.8 billion settlement announced in March.

The people and ecosystem of the Gulf Coast continue to struggle with the devastating impacts of the Deepwater Horizon spill – and will likely do so for many years to come.  Therefore, it is encouraging that the government has structured the settlement to ensure the majority of penalties paid by BP are returned to the impacted states to begin the painstaking process of environmental and economic restoration.  The bipartisan RESTORE Act, which passed Congress in June, is a critical piece of legislation also aimed at achieving that end.  The bill requires 80 percent of civil fines paid by the responsible parties under the Clean Water Act to be diverted  to the five Gulf states impacted by the spill, rather than to the general treasury.

Today’s action marks an enormous step forward in the enduring effort to make the Gulf Coast whole again.  In order to truly hold the responsible parties accountable for the Deepwater Horizon tragedy and ensure long-term recovery of the hard-hit region, the Administration should continue to pursue the maximum penalty in remaining civil fines and damages.

Kiley Kroh is the Associate Director of Ocean Communications at the Center for American Progress.

BP has agreed to pay a historic $4.5 billion criminal fine over a six-year period, after pleading guilty to 11 felony counts and criminal charges for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers. After two years, the litigation is not yet over since BP faces damages from Gulf states and additional civil charges from the Justice Department.

Much of the fine, $2.4 billion, will go to Gulf of Mexico restoration, where 5 million barrels of oil spilled over 87 days. Even now, an estimated 1 million barrels of oil remain in the waters, with excess oil washing up on Louisiana beaches as recently as September. Oil-soaked pelicans and other wildlife continue to wash up on shores. The disaster’s other legacies have produced eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions.

BP has earned tens of billions in profit since the 2010 disaster. In the last quarter alone, BP earned $5.4 billion net profit, bringing its total for the year to $9.7 billion. The company retains $15 billion in cash reserves, and has also spent $15 million lobbying Congress since 2011.

by Jackie Weidman

BP, one of the Big Five oil companies, announced its 2012 third-quarter profits this morning. The company reported earnings of $5.4 billion — three percent higher than last year.  This brings the company’s 2012 profits to $9.7 billion in the first nine months of the year.

Below is a glimpse at where BP spends its billions of dollars in profits:

– BP has already spent $6.9 million lobbying Congress this year, according to the latest Federal Election Commission figures. Since 2011, BP spent almost $15 million on lobbying Congress.
– BP has $16 billion in cash reserves.
– BP has contributed close to $300,000 to federal candidate campaigns in the 2012 election cycle. Republican candidates received 60 percent of these contributions.
– Despite higher profits this quarter, BP’s oil production is 4 percent lower than this time last year (1.15 million barrels of net liquids per day vs. 1.19 million barrels per day for the 3^rd quarter of 2011)

Excess oil from the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico washed onto Louisiana shores in the wake of Hurricane Isaac this past September. Tar clumps formed from oil were found on several beaches. The U.S, Coast Guard reported that oil-soaked pelicans and other wildlife were also found on the Louisiana coast. An estimated 1 million barrels of oil remain in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the spill.

ExxonMobil and Shell are the next of the Big Five companies to release third-quarter profits on Thursday November 1, 2012.

by Katie Valentine

Federal regulators have issued the most permits for deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico this year since 2007.

That’s according to data from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, as reported by the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

So far this year, the government has issued 90 new drilling permits for wells deeper than 500 feet — more than the last two years combined and more than each of the two years before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.

The news comes on the heels of President Obama and Governor Romney’s heated exchange about energy development during the second presidential debate last week. It further refutes Romney’s claims that new licenses and permits for drilling are down under the Obama administration, and backs up a report from Representative Edward Markey, which finds oil and gas companies have 3,684 idle leases in the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil production from existing federal leases in the Gulf of Mexico is also increasing, according the Times-Picayune:

Nearly 1.3 million gallons of oil were produced per day in July, up from 1.2 million gallons the year before, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That’s still down from 1.7 million gallons in 2009, the year before the spill.

That number is projected to grow to 1.4 million gallons per day by the end of 2013, according to federal estimates.

Andy Radford, a senior policy analyst with the American Petroleum Institute, expects deepwater drilling will continue to pick up, as additional rigs become available and operators become accustomed to the regulations and resumed pace of permitting.

Many operators are now trying to build up a cache of permits so that when drilling rigs become available, they can make a move, Radford said, which shows that operators are bullish on the outlook of drilling in the Gulf.

In fact, U.S. oil production is at its highest level since 1997, according to government figures. Though Republicans often tout domestic production as the key to lower gas prices, current and historical experiences shows that isn’t the case: fuel prices are still high today, in spite of record production levels, because the price of oil is determined by the global market.

An Associated Press analysis of 36 years of data on oil production and gasoline prices found “no statistical correlation between how much oil comes out of U.S. wells and the price at the pump.”

The surge in new drilling permits has to do with better communication of new rules and regulations between oil companies and government officials, industry analysts say. The Obama administration suspended deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico for six months following the Deepwater Horizon spill, a decision that was criticized by the oil industry and Gulf coast officials, who said it was excessive and would hurt the industry and the Gulf economy.

After lifting the moratorium early in October 2010, administration officials said the time period had been necessary put into place new rules and requirements that would reduce the risks of drilling enough to prevent another disaster.

More than two years later, the consequences of the Deepwater Horizon spill are still playing out.  Oil has been leaking from a 100-ton containment device on the seafloor near the site of the Macondo well blowout since at least September 16 of this year, when a sheen was discovered at the site. The leak is occurring at a rate at a rate of 100 barrels per day, and tests have confirmed the oil matches that which flowed from the Macondo well in 2010.

August’s Hurricane Issac  brought about 565,000 pounds of oiled material to the surface, more than had been collected in eight months before the storm. It’s estimated that up to 1 million barrels of oil from the spill remain beneath the ocean’s surface – oil that is affecting marine life in ways scientists still don’t know for sure.

In addition, scientists have discovered shrimp with no eyes or eye sockets and fish with deep lesions in the region.

Katie Valentine graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Journalism. She is currently an intern on the international climate policy team at the Center for American Progress.

Starting tomorrow, the world’s largest oil companies — ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP, and ConocoPhillips — will begin to announce their third-quarter profits for 2012. In the first half of 2012, these companies — all ranked in the top 10 of Fortune 500 Global — earned over $60 billion.

The oil industry reinvests tens of millions of these dollars for political purposes, including nearly all political contributions to Republicans, lobbying, and campaign ads. Through its enormous spending, these five and other Big Oil companies have fought to maintain $4 billion of their annual subsidies, while seeking to undermine clean energy investments:

$105 Million On Lobbying Since 2011, 90 Percent Of Campaign Contributions To GOP: The big five companies have spent over $105 million on lobbying Congress since 2011, according to lobbying disclosures through the third quarter. The biggest spenders were Shell ($25.7 million), Exxon ($25.4 million), and ConocoPhillips ($22.9 million). The five companies’ oil PACs have donated over $2.16 million to mostly Republican candidates this election cycle. Koch Industries also spends big money to pressure Congress, with $16.2 million on lobbying and more than $1.3 million from its PAC (the top oil and gas spender). In total, the oil and gas industry sends 90 percent of its near $50 million in contributions to Republicans, far eclipsing their record spending in 2008.

Misinformation Campaigns, Including Over $150 Million In Election Ads:
Over $150 million has been spent on TV ads promoting fossil fuel interests, particularly oil and coal, reports the New York Times. In addition to traditional campaign donations, the oil industry has turned to outside groups running attack ads. Earlier this year, Americans For Prosperity — founded and funded by the Koch brothers — launched a bogus ad claiming that clean energy stimulus dollars went overseas. And the oil lobby American Petroleum Institute has its own campaign promoting myths about oil production and gas prices. For example, API chief Jack Gerard, rumored to be on Mitt Romney’s shortlist for a White House or agency appointment, claimed that oil production on federal land is down. This is simply not true, since oil production is up 240 million barrels on federal lands and waters under President Obama compared to the Bush administration. And oil companies hold 20 million acres of federal oil, gas leases in Gulf of Mexico that remain unexplored or undeveloped. This is just one of the many myths Big Oil has pushed this campaign cycle.

Behind-The-Scenes Campaign To Defeat Clean Energy: Koch Industries and fossil fuel groups are mobilizing to defeat the extension of modest tax incentives for wind energy, even though oil tax breaks are permanent. The American Energy Alliance, which has Koch ties, aims to make the credit “so toxic” for Republicans it would be “impossible for John Boehner to sit at a table with Harry Reid.” The Koch-funded Americans For Prosperity is also campaigning against wind energy. Meanwhile, the industry has argued its own century-old tax breaks are necessary to maintain, despite years of record-breaking profits.

Overall, these efforts to keep their tax breaks while weakening public health safeguards from pollution have paid off in Congress and for Republican candidates. The House of Representatives is the most anti-environment in Congressional history, averaging at least one anti-environment vote per day to eliminate or undermine pollution protections, many benefiting Big Oil. And the Romney/Ryan budget plan would give the big five oil companies another $2.3 billion annual tax cut beyond existing loopholes.

After the big five companies’ second quarter profits, ThinkProgress calculated what a typical 24 hours looks like for the oil industry:

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