Who is going to profit from the oil spill?

Another thought is that the tanker companies may benefit, particularly those who are already using mostly double-hulled tankers, as the phaseout of single-hull tankers could be accelerated. Disruption to US offshore activities means longer distance shipping contracts.

I don’t think anyone is going to profit from the oil spill at all. Business and tourists are hurting pretty bad. I know many people canceling trips to the gulf. To me, BP is suffering the worse. There reputation is damaged and will take a while to recover.


Anyone fishing shrimp in other areas of the world should see their prices increase, I’d think. What other major consumable or resources normally come from those waters?

I read somewhere that the actual amount of oil lost is not enough to affect the world market prices. In fact, wasn’t BP in the process of closing down tis drill site? (which begs the question of why, if there’s enough there to spill at the rate of 5,000 gallons perminute through this Autumn?)

I think in the long run the big winners will be the alternative energy industry. that’s where I’d be putting my money if I had any. :wink:

Some individuals might - a friend’s father is some manner of biologist/zoologist/something that studies animals in their natural environment, and he got picked up on a contract by BP to do a survey of something or other on the Florida coast (gulf side), so there’s a net benefit to him.

It’s quite possible for companies and individuals to take in revenue without hugely profiting, or even profiting at all.

I think the Gulf only supplied about 5% of the world’s shrimp, so while there might be some impact on global prices, it won’t be as great as might be imagined.

The Deepwater Horizon was an exploratory rig whose only purpose was to drill the production pipe and then cap it until BP could bring in another rig to do the actual oil processing. This is the first production well to tap into the Macondo prospect so there’s plenty of oil to be released yet.

It seems to me there is a good movie that could be produced from the story of this disaster. Not only covering the planning and building of the underwater station. But also the story of how the disaster ocurred and how the people manning the station behaved when the leak first ocurred.

Did you see the Sixty Minutes interview a couple of weeks ago? It was one of the best shows they ever did and I was amazed at how heroic the people were who were working on the station at the time the leak first ocurred. It should make a terrific movie.