BP ‘wasting’ compensation money

An oyster fisherman whose family business was ruined by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill told BP's AGM its compensation funds were being 'wasted'.


Oil giant BP has spent tens of millions of pounds compensating people for the disaster around the gulf.

However Bryon Encalade of the Louisiana Oysterman Association, who is a proxy shareholder in BP, travelled to London today (April 14) to tell fellow investors the company was wasting money.

He said: “We’re here to inform the people this is their money that’s being wasted down there and going to places that we don’t know.

“Because we’re not getting it I can tell you and we need to get that message to the people who fund BP.”

Protesters gather outside London’s Excel before BP’s AGM

Mr Encalade, a lifelong oyster fisherman said his fishing beds were amongst the first to feel the impact from the oil spill, but compensation was still not getting through.

He added: “Now we have fishermen receiving cheques for six months work for $5,000, how can you support a family on that?

“The oysters in our communities they’re dead, the response to the disaster killed most of those oysters.

“We need to understand that they have scientific reports … putting out the message that’s everything’s ok but it’s not, it’s not!”

Luke Walsh

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