Robert Smith
Main Page: Robert Smith (Liberal Democrat - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Chris Huhne
The hon. Lady is absolutely right. I spoke yesterday to BP chief executive Tony Hayward, and I spoke this morning to another board member, Iain Conn. Until those conversations took place, I had not realised the extent of the co-operative effort across the industry in attempting to find a technical solution. Frankly, it is in the interests of all the oil and gas companies that operate in the gulf of Mexico and, indeed, more widely to ensure that they can reassure their publics and the people who are affected in Louisiana and the other coastal states that there are genuine technical solutions. That is one of the encouraging signs of what is now going on.
Sir Robert Smith (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD)
I reinforce the Secretary of State’s welcome recognition of the human tragedy involved in this disaster. This tragedy has a human face as well as an environmental one. Although the President was reassuring us that he did not intentionally want to affect BP’s finances, he may have unintentionally done so. If we can ensure effective co-operation across countries to make sure that the focus is on finding a solution to the problem, that would be most welcome. Specifically, for the north-east of Scotland, his reassurance on the safety regime that applies to the North sea is most welcome—in particular, that our blow-out preventers are subject to rigorous testing and inspection to ensure that such an incident could not happen here.
Chris Huhne
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to draw attention to that. In fact, both in our regime and in the United States regime, blow-out preventers are checked regularly. One of the mysteries appears to be the fact that the blow-out preventer was checked within two weeks of the disaster and still failed. Clearly, that is one of the things that the investigation must get to the bottom of. One of the things that we will need to learn about operating at such depths and pressures is whether yet further fail-safe mechanisms need to be built into the blow-out preventers, and we will certainly look at that. He is also absolutely right to draw attention to the human tragedy and, indeed, the importance of maintaining safety for all those who work in the industry.