BP rep meets with H-T Chamber of Commerce

Louisiana wants to see its coast restored, and BP has assured the Gulf Coast it won’t go anywhere until the job is done.

A representative from BP, Gerry Perreboom, spoke at a joint meeting of the Chamber’s Government Affairs, Natural Resources and Economic Development committees Thursday to discuss the oil company’s ongoing effort in restoring the Gulf.

“I wish I wasn’t here to talk about this response that started with a tragedy,” Perreboom said. “Hopefully there will be long-lasting positive aspects for the Gulf Coast. A lot of people, including myself have been opened up to a whole part of the country we’ve never thought about before, and we’ve got to get the economy going again.”

Perreboom told committee members BP is continuing to fight encroaching oil on beaches, and thus far it has been a success.

“We were able to stop a lot of that oil that encroached on the beaches from reaching the shore which has made the clean up effort much more manageable,” he said, but admitted that one drop of oil is a drop too many.

Perreboom also addressed the issue of an oil plume some residents fear might surface.

“Nothing’s going to hit the shore,” he said. “The oil droplets would have to re-aggregate, they’re in deep water so they’d have to get over the shelf and reach the shore, so this ‘plume’ that you hear people talking about – that’s not what we need to be worrying about.”

Currently, there are still over 900 workers handling the response in the Gulf, according to Perreboom, and some of the response team will eventually relocate to New Orleans. To date, he said, $6 billion has been spent in recovery efforts, including $399 million paid to claimants and another $500 million set aside for a Gulf Coast Research Initiative.

“The Gulf seems to be recovering very fast, it’s amazing how resilient the environment actually is,” Perreboom said, but stressed that BP will see the restoration effort through to the end.

“We are committed and we’re here for the long term,” he said. “So stick with us.”