I can only speak with confidence with regard to the majors I have worked for, but I can assure you that I have not seen significant spills from those companies (BP is, of course, the exception). Statistics can be very misleading.
When you say there have been 858 fires, does that mean there have been 858 spills which have resulted in fires, or does that number include safety blankets that have caught on fire,
thus preventing real, dangerous fires? (Do you even know what a safety blanket is?) Statistics are not useful unless the context is explained. I am not presenting any statistics grabbed from some online source.
I am defending the standards of major oil companies that I have witnessed first hand in my 15 years in the oil industry, working as a contractor for several major oil companies.
People who have never been offshore generally have absolutely no idea of the
extraordinary measures oil companies to protect the environment in the modern era
.
I did not say there had been any fires, the report said there had been 858 fires/explosions. The link was there for you to read.
Are you that high in the oil business that you know everything that's going on?
Was it not BP that was fined for not following safety procedures, this one
OSHA issued BP with 271 notifications for non-compliance carrying a total of $56.9 in fines. The levies also included $31 million in "willful violations" of process safety management.
....................................................................................................................
or this one
U.S. regulators have fined British oil giant BP PLC $3 million, citing safety problems at its Toledo, Ohio, refinery. This came some four months after the government imposed a record penalty on the company over its refinery in Texas. The fines show the tougher safety stance being taken by the Obama administration. BP is working to improve safety at its plants since a 2005 explosion at Texas City, Texas, that killed 15 people and injured 170. The U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the Toledo refinery, which is jointly owned by BP and Canadas Husky Energy Inc., with 42 alleged willful violations and 20 alleged serious violations for exposing workers to safety hazards. The infractions stem from an OSHA investigation at Toledo that began last September. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis said in a statement:
....................................................................................................................
Also from ABC News
BP, the company that owned the Louisiana oil rig that exploded last week, spent years battling federal regulators over how many layers of safeguards would be needed to prevent a deepwater well from this type of accident.
This image provided by the U.S. Coast Guard shows fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon in this April 21, 2010 file photo.
(U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images)One area of immediate concern, industry experts said, was the lack of a remote system that would have allowed workers to clamp shut Deepwater Horizon's wellhead so it would not continue to gush oil. The rig is now spilling 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico.
In a letter sent last year to the Department of the Interior, BP objected to what it called "extensive, prescriptive regulations" proposed in new rules to toughen safety standards. "We believe industry's current safety and environmental statistics demonstrate that the voluntary programs
continue to be very successful
....................................................................................................................
