NYT editorial: Can BP Ever Get It Right?

The world knows that BP failed to plan for the disastrous blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. Now we discover that BP did not plan for success either.

The containment cap the company has lowered over the well is capturing considerable quantities of oil — about 11,000 barrels a day, according to the Coast Guard. But BP has not been able to increase the collection rate because the machinery on its surface ship is rapidly nearing its 15,000 barrel-a-day limit on the amount of oil it can process for storage. The ship’s total capacity is 139,000 barrels, which, at present rates, could be reached in a matter of days.

BP said on Monday that another processing ship would be ready to start receiving oil by the weekend. One has to wonder when this feckless outfit — whose chief executive finally admitted last week with chilling understatement that he did not have the “tool kit” to control deep-water blowouts — will ever get ahead of this or any other problem.

Then there is the issue of BP’s shaky credibility. Only a few weeks ago, the company estimated the spill at 5,000 barrels a day. Government experts later revised this figure upward to 12,000 to 25,000 barrels. That terrifying number may still be too modest in view of the fact that the 11,000 barrels a day now being captured are only a fraction of the total.

(More here.)