In March, the ban imposed on BP and its subsidiaries on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico was lifted for the first time since the disastrous Deepwater Horizon blowout flooded U.S. waters with 4.9 million barrels of crude in April 2010.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has allowed BP back from exile eight months ahead of schedule. Judging by the flurry of bidding for licenses offered by the federal government later that month, the British oil major doesn't seem to be hesitating to take it.
The spill brought about a short-lived diplomatic rift between the two countries. U.S. citizens may be willing to forgive BP, but they are unlikely to forget an environmental disaster seen to be brought about by cost-cutting and negligence. But the fact remains that the Gulf needs BP.
In an episode of South Park aired not long after the spill, a super hero called "Captain Hindsight" is tasked with saving the day by telling BP experts what they should have done to prevent the accident. A key motif of the episode is CEO Tony Hayward's contrite "I'm sorry" campaign, which is ruthlessly mocked. As is the farcical rebranding of BP to DP, for "Dependable Petroleum," in an echo of BP's much-criticized rebranding to "Beyond Petroleum" in the 1990s.
As a cultural product, it sums up the anger and disbelief at what BP got away with during the immediate aftermath of the disaster, and the notorious mishandling of the media by senior management.
Both BP's reputation and its bank balance have suffered in recent years. BP's own estimate of damages for the spill is $42.7 billion. Early estimates for the cost of the compensation program agreed for those affected was $7.8 billion, but that figure continues to rise and the company has now paid out almost $13 billion in claims.
As local law firms saw dollar signs and the potential for lucrative commissions, all manner of local trader — including a funeral parlor and an "escort agency" in Florida — began to make claims. Once 2013 arrived, it appeared that BP was propping up the Gulf region's economy with its guilt money. Profits have rebounded since the $3.7 billion loss made in 2010, but BP has had to sell off a string of assets to help soften the blow.
No bad thing, some might say. Those who love to hate Big Oil see this merely as playing the oil majors at their own game. It was, after all, BP's own corporate greed that drove prioritization of short-term financial gains over long term process-safety considerations
That greed led not only to the blowout in 2010 but also to the Texas refinery fire in 2005 that killed 15, as is persuasively described in Tom Bergin's corporate expose "Spills and Spin." Nevertheless some grudgingly understand BP's bristling at compensating the dubious claims.
Given the mockery and resentment BP has been subjected to in the U.S., you might think their return would be an unwelcome one. But it is these same local businesses and traders whose lobbying is bringing about the return of oil companies earlier than expected.
The 2,300 U.S. citizens directly employed by BP and the cluster of industries that have developed to support drilling in the Gulf keep the local economy moving, and the loss of jobs is becoming too unpopular.
BP is also making its return under new management. Boyish former CEO Tony Hayward, widely villified in the press for asking for his "life back" while oil continued to gush from the rig, is long gone. In his place is American Bob Dudley, backed up by John Minge, head of U.S. operations.
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With protesters behind him, BP CEO Tony Hayward awaits the start of a hearing before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee on "The Role Of BP In The Deepwater Horizon Explosion And Oil Spill" June 17, 2010, in Washington, D.C.
Hayward may have a background in engineering, but his record at the top suggests it was the bankers rather than BP's engineers who had his ear. He was charged at the outset with getting BP "more bang for its buck," and corners were cut accordingly.
Dudley, the first non-Briton to run the company, is also an engineer by training. But unlike Hayward, he is known as a skilled diplomat. He will be more concerned with rebuilding BP's image and government relations on both sides of the Atlantic, healing the wounds after a few rocky years.
Dudley is certainly no stranger to hostile environments, having led BP's fateful Russian operations until he was forced to flee the country in what looked more like the plot of a spy novel than corporate relations, complete with KGB raids and threats of poisoning.
However unfairly treated BP executives might feel in private, Hayward's wounded remarks that "this isn't BP, it's an industry accident" have been deeply unhelpful. The more conciliatory and forward-looking tone being struck by Dudley and his team as they make another play for the Gulf makes for much smarter PR.
The challenges, of course, go far beyond PR. Strict new regulations for accident prevention have been introduced, and there will be a five-year probation period during which BP will be under close scrutiny by an independent auditor appointed by the EPA.
BP's return from exile will be a closely-supervised one, calling for investment in more meaningful and robust procedures. When Tony Hayward first came to the Gulf with BP in the 1990s, the U.S. Minerals Management Service served more as an investment promotion agency than a regulator, but the new bosses can expect no such leniency.
With its Russian operations under the cloud of sanctions, you might think BP has enough on its plate without stepping back into a jurisdiction where it has a checkered history. But the Gulf of Mexico has been the company's bread and butter since they first arrived in the 1950s.
BP also has serious resources to deploy, and the oil-dependent local economy sorely needs the boost it can provide. But if BP is to prove its worth to the Gulf region again, it also needs to rediscover its identity as a frontier explorer at the forefront of drilling technology, rather than the investment vehicle paying scant regard to details that many believe it has become.
