Gem of the day

Well kids, the FT reports today that a moment of reckoning is finally here for offshore drilling:

"A plan to create a safety organisation for deep-water drilling is being drawn up"

But wait--who's in charge of organising the initiative?

"Leading oil companies...in an attempt to restore public confidence in the industry"

Right. Potential conflict of interest? Here's where it gets really, really good though. A debate is emerging over whether the new organisation should be part of the American Petroleum Institute or not. That's right, API--as in the same folks who lobby Washington for decreased regulation in the oil industry. The same folks who declared a few weeks ago that the industry should be able to drill anywhere, anytime in the U.S.of.A. The FT, in its characteristically diplomatic way, delicately notes the awkward conflict of interest guiding the API as an organisation, since in addition to representing 400 oil companies it's also responsible for setting the technical standards for the industry. Which is probably why those standards are so inadequate.

So who's involved in the debate? You might be sensing a pattern here:

"A working party of executives and advisers, chaired by a senior manager from Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil company by market capitalisation"

The worst gem in this situation by far is the conclusion the FT inserts in the middle of its analysis:

"It is becoming increasingly urgent for the industry to restore confidence so it can restart deep-water drilling."

Is this terribly mistaken logic of step 1: PR, step 2: business as usual and step 3: regulation, possibly, just a given way of working in today's profit-obsessed economies? 'Increasing public confidence' is actually the last thing that needs to be done in the wake of the official Deepwater Horizon report recommending increased regulation on offshore drilling.

Memo to the industry, the media and regulators: if there's a lack of confidence, it's justified.