The bill, according to recent reports from North America, is said to be the final clean-up cost after the Exxon Valdez spilled its load in 1989, dumping an estimate 11 million gallons of crude along 2000km of pristine coast.
Repercussions from the spill were felt in court rooms for years, with ExxonMobil itself forced to pay an estimated $900 million in 1991.
Why last week’s $92 million bill surfaced when it did is something of a mystery.
The Alaskan Department of Law and its Federal US counterparts are said to claim that this was their last chance to settle the matter, and apart from that, The Slug reckons they probably thought it a good time to sink the slipper after BP’s botched pipeline maintenance on the North Slope.
The authorities claim that the $92 million is the final (in the cross-my-heart, and promise to tell the truth, category of final) cost associated with matters not covered in the 1991 settlement.
Slugcatcher, an ardent watcher over the years of the hard-nosed approach to business by ExxonMobil, is both amused and bemused by this so-called final claim, and its timing.
Amused because it is certain to test the public relations skills of a business, which has over the best part of a century, exhibited none.
Bemused because it seems a little far-fetched to think that someone in the Alaskan Government suddenly found a slip of paper in his desk saying “must remember to ask for that final $US92 million from Exxon”.
The official answer to The Slug’s pondering on where (and why) the final bill was generated apparently lies in the timing of the Exxon Valdez fiasco. Government agencies apparently had until Friday of last week to wrap up their claims over the matter.
ExxonMobil will hardly be as amused as outside observers because the name Valdez has long been struck from the company’s collective corporate memory.
The question now is whether a cheque is rapidly penned and posted to Anchorage with an attached note saying “cheque enclosed, now please piss off”, or words to that effect.
Or whether the chaps at ExxonMobil are so annoyed at this last-minute legal ambush that they say enough is enough, see you in court.
The Slug, who for some reason is never consulted on these matters, offers some priceless advice – send the cheque now, and the note if you have to.
If that advice is followed, every other oil company in the world will breathe a sigh of relief because the last thing the industry needs now is a spat over a bill for a spill that took place 17 years ago.
Low profile is the name of the game when profits are so high that they bring tears to the eyes, and when a company like ExxonMobil can pay the final disputed $92 million from roughly 20 hours of net profit – and a lot less from pre-tax earnings.
The 20-hour calculation is based on annualising ExxonMobil’s last quarter profit of $10.36 billion, which boils down to $4.7 million an hour, or $78,000 a minute, or $130 a second.
Expect those sort of calculations to fill the front pages of every paper in the US should ExxonMobil hesitate to finally settle the Valdez matter – and for talk of windfall taxes on super oil profits to quickly follow.
Posting the cheque today, whether it’s fair or not, could save a lot of people a lot of pain if forced to take a trip down memory lane.
Note: The views of Slugcatcher are not those of APPEA.
