Ocean Therapy Solutions

  1. Companies established in 1995
  2. Deepwater Horizon oil spill
  3. Separation processes


Ocean Therapy Solutions (OTS) is a company owned by actor Kevin Costner. He acquired the company from the United States government for US$24 million in 1995. This is equivalent to US$36.6 million in present-day terms.[1] The company specializes in developing centrifugal oil-water separators. After the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, Costner wanted to find a new way to separate oil from water, so he acquired the company. He found it difficult to promote its products, until BP placed an order for several of the company's devices in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[2][3]

OTS's largest machine, the V20, can clean up to 210,000 US gallons (790,000 l) of oily water per day. On July 8, 2010, OTS reported it had 9 centrifuges deployed in the Gulf of Mexico, with 23 additional machines under construction and scheduled for shipment to Louisiana by the end of August 2010.[4]

The machines developed by the company were of little commercial interest until the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, when BP took six of the machines for testing in late May 2010.[5] On June 9, that order was expanded to 32 of the oil-water separation devices.[6]

Lawsuit

Stephen Baldwin and Spyridon Contogouri had a joint agreement to market the technology. They filed a lawsuit in Louisiana District Court claiming $10.64 million for claiming securities fraud and misrepresentation. The suit claims that Costner kept a meeting with BP secret from them, and resulted in an $18 million down payment on a $52 million purchase and that after the down payment but before any announcement Costner used part of the downpayment to buy out their shares, thus excluding them from their share of the profits from the total sale.[7] The suit claims that Baldwin and Contogouris were told by Costner that BP had no interest in the technology and that Costner offered to buy their share for $1.4 million to Baldwin and $500,000, to Contogouris.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Staff. Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2012. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Kevin Costner sells 32 oil spill machines to BP to recycle 6 million gallons of water a day". The Examiner. 2010-06-10.
  3. ↑ Mark Guarino (2010-05-20). "Kevin Costner oil spill cleanup idea interests BP". The Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0520/Kevin-Costner-oil-spill-cleanup-idea-interests-BP. Retrieved 2010-06-12.
  4. ↑ "Edison Chouest Offshore and Ocean Therapy Solutions Debut Oil Spill Cleanup Vessel Equipped with "T-Rex" Skimmer for Greater Capacity". Ocean Therapy Solutions. 2010-07-08. http://www.ots.org/?p=73.
  5. ↑ Robbins, Liz (May 19, 2010). "If You Build It …". The New York Times. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/if-you-build-it/?dbk.
  6. ↑ http://www.reefrelieffounders.com/drilling/2010/06/11/examiner-kevin-costner-sells-32-oil-spill-machines-to-bp-to-recycle-6-million-gallons-of-water-a-day-photos
  7. ↑ http://news-briefs.ew.com/2010/12/23/stephen-baldwin-kevin-costner-lawsuit-bp/?hpt=T2
  8. ↑ Detroit Free Press, Friday, December 24, 2010, page 3C

External links


...