Oil Spillage Equals Opportunity

You and I both have been bombarded with the media for over 80 days now on the BP Spill and all we here is ranting and raving from both sides of the fence. But little has been said about the folks that have benefited from the Gulf oil spill. They say with every crisis there is an opportunity, so I did a little research and here are some of the folks that have gained some form of economic relief from the Deepwater Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico:

• Cleaning products: From Dawn dish soap to Corexit Oil Dispersant, cleaning products are gaining attention/goodwill, PROFIT and credibility from the oil spill.

• Green Investment Firms: You have to hand it to fund managers — they don’t let a crisis stand in the way of profit. If investing in a company that is helping to clean up an oil spill is your cup of tea, you could stand to make money at the same time.
• Poop Scoopers: Manufacturers of these little gadgets have seen a tremendous growth as these utensils were used to scoop oil and tar balls that landed on our coastal beaches. Even with the decline in fishing rods, a fishing rod maker offset the impact of the oil spill by create a scooper that picks up the tar balls and leaves the sand.
• Booms: Floating hard boom (used to corral or deflect the oil spill) from Louisiana to Florida, to the Great Lakes to the Caribbean — the producers of these booms have seen demand overshadow supply as communities scramble to protect their coastlines from the oil slick. The folks who rent these booms are also finding it impossible to meet demand and thus profits have increased, along with rental prices doubling.

• Hotels: The oil spill has affected the bookings at Gulf Coast hotels, motels and time shares — large, medium and small — but it is not all negative. Relief workers and other workers are booking these hotels and some at exorbitant  rates. The old adage “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is definitely fitting when it comes to the accommodation’s stance on pricing of rooms. Media accounts state there are a large number of cancellations but we must not forget that people may not being going to the beach anyway given we have an unemployment rate of >9% (or 15 million people).
• Lawyers: Last but not least, we must not forget them. Anytime you have something of this magnitude (and this is our region’s first large-scale environmental crisis), folks will be looking to eagle-eye lawyers to handle their legal woes. This is good news for the lawyers who will get paid for representing clients against BP. And vice versa for the law firm that ends up representing BP!

Photo Credit

“Vessel of Opportunity” Deepwater Horizon Response @ Flickr.com. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.

“Gulf Oil Spill: Tar Balls, Dirty Water, Oil”  Southern Tabitha @ Flickr.com. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.

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