BP Ramps Up Public Relations Effort As Specter of Maximum Spill Penalty Looms

摘要

BP Plc has apologized again and again for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Lately the company has been sounding less remorseful. Take a look at "The Whole Story." It is a Web page operated by the London-based company that regularly addresses what BP calls "misinformation" about the region's recovery and legal issues surrounding the 130 million-gallon (500 million-liter) spill, the largest in U.S. history. BP recently spent 525 words on what it termed the "questionable science" behind a study by oceanogra-pher Jeff Chanton addressing an abiding mystery: What happened to the crude that never washed ashore? His finding: As much as 5 percent of the oil that poured from the Macondo well settled at the bottom of the Gulf, potentially damaging the ecosystem for years.