Subject: Re: OT Exxon and BP
It pays to listen to someone like Texirish who has had a front row seat. I remember years ago a friend who worked very hard on her investments insisted BP was the best of the oil companies. My wife and I had spent our careers in the business and tried to convince her otherwise. She was convinced ExxonMobil was evil incarnate and that BP were the only good guys out there. We saw a different story than public perceived through the PR and press campaigns. My wife was an Exxon employee, my uncle was president of Mobil, and they knew they had to operate as though there was a big bulls eye on them. Whenever a safety or ethical issue arose, you knew Exxon would be singled out if they didn't toe the line and do things according to the book. When BP bought Amoco, Amoco was in a dispute for defrauding Exxon on a joint project. The attitude at Exxon was "we would never dream of that, there's no way Exxon could get away with that sort of behavior."

The Deepwater Horizon debacle was not a surprise to us. The attempts to pin some blame on Halliburton were misguided. As much as I disliked Dick Cheney, there is no doubt BP would be calling the shots, that is just the way it works between the operating company and service companies. Our friend never brought up oil investments again, and we resisted the "I told you so".