British paper publishes BP internal meeting notes

The United Kingdom's Guardian newspaper has published meeting notes between BP executives regarding the BP oil spill recovery in the Gulf of Mexico.

The e-mails, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, show BP officials discussing how to set up and operate environmental testing in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oilrig disaster.

The correspondence also contains meeting notes in regards to coordinating the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process mandated for all oil spills. BP conducted a workshop in August involving various agencies and NRDA representatives, the emails state.

The emails also state that BP sought to "influence this Long Term Research Program ($US 500million) to undertake the studies we believe will be useful in understanding the fate and effects of the spill on the environment."

The emails seek correspondence and cooperation between BP, the U.S. Coastguard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other entities involved in collecting and analyzing samples from the Gulf of Mexico.