Containment-boom makers and their vendors that ramped up supply for BP after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill say the company suddenly stopped accepting deliveries weeks ago, leaving them with millions of dollars in unused product.
Several makers of the vinyl protective sheaths known as boom and their suppliers say they are deeply in debt and have been forced to lay off workers and delay payment to vendors.
During the height of the oil spill this summer, more than 4 million feet of containment boom was laid on the water’s surface to shield the Gulf Coast.
But BP began putting boom orders on hold or rejecting them about the second week in July, as efforts to stop the flow of oil gained ground.
On Tuesday, BP said concerns about storms in the gulf would delay by several days work on a relief well expected to help permanently seal the well.
To be sure, some of the suppliers and manufacturers were speculating on demand, ordering boom and increasing production before they had contracts in place. But The Wall Street Journal interviewed 11 manufacturers and suppliers who said they had contracts with BP or were delivering to those who did. Ten of those manufacturers said they now were out money.
“We are reaching out to our suppliers to understand their individual situations and explore possible solutions,” a BP spokesman said Tuesday.
About a dozen manufacturers make all the boom used by oil companies, emergency-response companies and marinas in the United States. The supply on hand dissipated quickly after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, leased by BP, exploded in April, sending millions of barrels of crude oil into the gulf.
BP suddenly needed boom — and lots of it.
Gene Bautista, a BP integrity-assessment coordinator whose team inspected many of the companies doing business with BP, says he knows some boom suppliers have been left in the lurch.
“It is kind of (lousy) to tell people to build as much boom as they can and then don’t accept it,” he said.
