BP to start three new Gulf of Mexico oil rigs

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/apr/30/bp-new-gulf-mexico-oil-rigs



BP is planning to start three new oil drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico this year. The launch of the new rigs will bring the number of BP rigs in the Gulf to eight – more than the oil giant had before the devastating Deepwater Horizon disaster three years ago.

Bernard Looney, BP's executive in charge of new wells, said BP is expecting to spend $4bn (£2.5bn) on new developments in the Gulf of Mexico this year and hopes to "invest at least that much every year over the next decade".

"After much soul-searching in the fall of 2010, we concluded it would be wrong to walk away [from the Gulf of Mexico]," Looney said at an offshore oil conference in Houston, Texas, on Monday. "We would have been walking away not only from our past, but from a key component of our future."

He said the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 11 people, had "challenged us to the core", but said the company has been working hard to help prevent "such an accident from ever happening again".

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1. Bernard LOONEY? Seriously?

How fitting.

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2. That's Mr. Looney, to you!