Oil flows and a president resigns

We look at international press commentary on BP’s unsuccessful clean-up efforts and on the resignation of German President Horst Köhler.

Don’t blame Britain

The name is “British Petroleum”, but that doesn’t mean Britain is responsible for the oil spill, writes The Daily Telegraph. About a third of the company’s operations, personnel and shareholders are American — and the results of the disaster will also be felt abroad.

The industrial might of the United States has been built partly on what some call Big Oil, and they don’t come much bigger than BP. For all that many in America are choosing to emphasise the “British” rather than the “Petroleum” as they seek to attach culpability for the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the nationality of the drilling company is irrelevant. … And given the importance of BP’s share values and dividends to the stock market and to pension funds, there will be significant consequences for investors, especially here in Britain. ...

Many questions

In the US, a special panel has been appointed to examine the causes of the oil spill and to find ways of preventing similar ecological catastrophes in the future. The panel has a difficult job ahead of it, writes the International Herald Tribune.

BP’s latest failure to plug the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is one more strike against the company and one more signal to President Obama to redouble efforts to contain and clean the spill. BP now pins its hopes — and those of America — on yet another containment strategy, its fifth since the April 20 explosion. It does so amid mounting public anger and a report in this newspaper that the company may have violated its own safety standards by ignoring warnings about design flaws in the well. …

Germany’s role

The resignation of German President Horst Köhler raises questions about Germany’s role in the world. According to the Financial Times, the problem is a lack of global vision.

… [Köhler] was seen to imply that German troops were engaged in Afghanistan for economic reasons. He meant no such thing, but in Germany, a country still bedevilled by its militaristic past, his words were incendiary. … It is a pity that Mr Köhler, a distinguished public servant, was too thin-skinned. Germany needs to engage with — not withdraw from — the argument.