On site

Ok, so I've recently written some posts attacking BP because of the oil spill, which is still spilling by the way, in the Gulf of Mexico.
Thank goodness there are no BP execs who are followers of my blog, because I am presently sitting in Port Fourchon, Louisiana aboard my tug, waiting while BP and others retrofit our barge so it can carry 8 of Kevin Costner's oil skimmers out into the fouled waters of the Gulf to help in the cleanup.

It seems BP is throwing some money at my company, and in return will get to use some of our barges in the clean up. The barges need a tug boat to tow them.
I work on a tug.
So, yep, essentially I am now working for BP.
Gulp!

Port Fouchon, located on Louisiana's south coast, is a stones throw away from the Gulf, which is why this little swampy area has been transformed into a very busy land base for the oil rigs working in the Gulf of Mexico. Anything you would possibly need to build or operate an oil rig, gets to the rigs, which can be hundreds of miles from land, via supply boats from this bustling Port in the middle of nowhere. Below is a picture of one of my company's supply boats that went by today.



The Ports business has exploded since the relative recent opening of the deepwater of the Gulf for oil exploration. This project, "Deepwater Gulf of Mexico" is why the rig Deepwater Horizon, was where it was before it experienced the catastrophe that caused this massive oil spill.

When I was told to fly to New Orleans and meet the boat in Fourchon because we were going to be involved, somehow, in the clean up, I was anxious to see what was going on. I expected to arrive at my boat to see people flying around doing all that has to be done to get the barge equipped to provide a service we normally don't deal with.

Kevin Costners oil separators?
New living quarters on the barge for the additional 16 people that will live there while operating all this equipment while we're out at sea?
On charter with BP?

Man, I thought, this is going to be intense.
But if what I've seen is any indication, then there is a serious lack of urgency by BP concerning this disaster.
Our tug and barge have been tied to the dock for the last 10 days. We've had visits from BP representitives and meetings out the wazoo. But absolutely nothing has been done physically to change our barge into a state of the art oil recovery unit.

I hear Kevin's machines might be here next week.
Meanwhile we sit, doing nothing, while our company gets paid by BP, for doing nothing.
The oil still gushes.
Is there something wrong with this picture?

I'll keep you posted.