Big oil face off

It seems we have the oil and gas giants positioning themselves post BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill. First we had Shell boss Peter Voser attacking BP over oil well safety saying, ‘Shell would have drilled this well in a different way and would have had more options to prevent the accident.’

Now we have Chevron hedging their bets and taking a more cautious approach. Richard Cohagan, managing director of Chevron UK, admitted their new deepwater drilling campaign off the Shetland Islands could cause an oil spill of greater magnitude than BP's Gulf of Mexico disaster. He went on, ‘Deepwater Horizon has given us a new perspective on how bad things could be.’

If you watch Chevron’s advertisements they tend to be very caring and sharing and this line from their UK Chief would seem to fit with this approach. Whether it amounts to anything more than spin over substance is another matter.