Two years after oil from a BP well began gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed criminal charges alleging that a former BP employee destroyed critical evidence in the early days of the unfolding disaster.

The charges are the first to be filed in what the Obama administration has called the worst environmental disaster in American history, and they are significant because they target an individual employee for his actions.

According to an affidavit and complaint filed Tuesday, April 24 in a Louisiana court, Kurt Mix, a former drilling and completions engineer, deleted email and text messages he had sent to senior BP managers estimating that the amount of oil spewing into the Gulf was many times greater than the amount stated publicly. Mix was specifically instructed by attorneys contracted by BP to retain his records before he deleted them, the affidavit states.

In a statement released to reporters, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder indicated that more charges are likely, describing the indictment as “initial charges” in an ongoing investigation, and saying that the Department of Justice “will hold accountable those who violated the law.”

More than 200 million gallons of crude oil flowed into the Gulf of Mexico after a blowout caused the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the death of 11 workers on April 20, 2010. The spill continued, unabated, for nearly three months. Analysts have long expected criminal charges against BP or its employees.

A spokeswoman for the agency declined to say when more charges might be expected, or to explain why the case against Mix was the first to be made public.

Mix could not be reached for comment, and we were unable to leave him a message because his voicemail was full.

BP issued a statement saying that the company was cooperating with federal investigators and that “BP had clear policies requiring preservation of evidence in this case and has undertaken substantial and ongoing efforts to preserve evidence.”

According to an FBI affidavit submitted to the court along with the indictment, Mix, who worked for BP until January 2012, was directly involved in BP’s efforts to understand how much oil was flowing out of the broken Macondo well. On April 21, 2010, Mix estimated that between 68,000 and 138,000 barrels of oil were leaking each day — far more than the 5,000 barrels that were estimated publicly at the time.

On April 22, Mix received the first of six legal notices instructing him to retain his electronic records.

Yet, according to the affidavit, in early October, Mix allegedly deleted a string of more than 200 text messages on his iPhone that he had sent to a supervisor. The deleted texts, which the Department of Justice said were recovered forensically, included sensitive — and pessimistic — internal BP information sent while the company was attempting what it called a “Top Kill” effort to stop the gushing oil on May 26, 2010.

Mix wrote that the effort — which he was directly involved in — was unlikely to succeed. “Too much flowrate — over 15,000 and too large an orifice. Pumped over 12,800 bbl of mud today plus 5 separate bridging pills. Tired. Going home and getting ready for round three tomorrow.”

At the time, BP said publicly that the measure had a 70 percent chance of success.

Mix, 50, was arrested in Katy, Texas on April 24. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each of the two counts he is charged with.

by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, April 24, 2012, 5:16 p.m.

Image Courtesy of   IBRRC

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Port Everglades, FL, U.S.A. – Joseph Farrell, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Resolve Marine Group, among the world’s foremost maritime emergency and disaster response, salvage and ship wreck recovery companies, says, “Removal of the capsized Costa Concordia cruise ship from the Tuscany coastline is one of the largest undertakings of its kind – this is a massive and complex operation which the entire world will be watching.”

For more than 30 years, Resolve Marine Group has conducted hundreds of seafaring salvage and ship wreck removal operations. His company has responded to ship collisions, vessel fires and disabled, capsized and sunken vessels. Among Resolve’s historic headline missions is the oil spill cleanup operation following BP Deep Water Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 and its recovery of the aircraft and human remains at the Value Jet Flight 592 crash site in the Florida Everglades.

Resolve Marine Group also owns and operates the globally recognized Resolve Maritime Academy. Since 1994, it has trained on-board firefighting techniques to more than 18,500 professional mariners from numerous major cruise lines and scores of oil tanker and cargo companies. The Academy has also trained ship firefighting to hundreds of members of land-based port firefighting units.

Recently, the Academy – which has focused primarily on training marine firefighting, hazardous materials response and vessel damage control – expanded its curricula to include navigational safety-related programs.

Farrell says, “Resolve Marine Group has worked with Titan Salvage on a number of important maritime ship wreck projects.” Titan is the Pompano Beach, Florida, USA company that was awarded the Costa Concordia project along with the Italian marine contractor Micoperi.

“The Costa Concordia is a massive, international assignment that will involve hundreds of personnel including naval architects and engineers, highly experienced salvage masters and a variety of specialists such as environmental consultants,” explains Farrell.

“Based on my experience, Titan and Micoperio are staffed with qualified teams for this mission, which, I suspect, will require dispatching equipment and crews from around the globe,” explains Farrell.

“The plan to upright the capsized craft; then slowly tow it to a port near Rome could take more than a year to complete,” says Farrell. “Because of the magnitude of this project, unlike other salvage operations – and because the cruise ship is so close to land, – the Costa Concordia requires special attention to the environmental concerns and to limiting disruption to the community, which relies almost entirely on tourism for its economic livelihood.”

Farrell explains, “The salvage team has to be extremely careful not to cause adverse effects to the environment.” He says, “Rolling and then refloating the ship in one piece rather than dismantling it piece-by-piece will be quite a feat. The main concern will be to not further compromise the ship’s structural integrity, so that it can be maneuvered off the coast and to another port.”

Farrell started in the maritime salvage and recovery business with one tug boat more than three decades ago. He has grown Resolve Marine Group into a global company with offices or affiliates in major port cities on America’s Atlantic Seaboard; on the nation’s Great Lakes; its Gulf Coast and Pacific Coastline. Resolve maintains offices and affiliates around the globe.

In March 2012, Resolve Maritime Academy opened its 7,000 square foot new Simulation Training Center which includes a 240 degree, Class A Full Mission Bridge Simulator, suite of mini bridges and ECDIS lab. The Center was designed to accommodate the training needs of a Resolve client company, one the leading cruise line companies in the world.

The simulation technology can realistically simulate the depth and visually recreate the topography of every seaport in the world. It can create various weather, wave and other conditions. Simulator training is proven to advance the navigational skills of officers and crews; improve their abilities at collision avoidance; better develop the efficacy of command communications and enhance concentration and leadership abilities.

“Human error, poor decision-making and fractured command leadership are among the leading causes of most maritime disasters,” says Farrell. “This advanced new navigational training combined with a focus on human factors, and strict adherence to U.S. Coast Guard and International Maritime Organization safety and sailing regulations is proven to save lives.”

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