Unintended consequence of expanding liability…

According to bloomberg.com, “Proposals in Congress to raise U.S. liability costs to $10 billion to drill for oil in the Gulf could leave just three companies — BP, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc — with the finances to self-insure”.  As I recall, prior to the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill, liability for offshore oil drilling was capped at $75 million. Thus, an unintended consequence of expanding liability by a factor of 133 times (from $75 million to $10 billion) would be to make it virtually impossible for the insurance market to insure offshore oil drilling liability, which in turn would ensure that only the very largest companies in the world will have the financial capacity needed in order to be able to continue to pursue deep water drilling as a business activity (because companies such as BP, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have the resources to self-insure this liability risk!). 

Leave a Reply