BNP Petroleum Corporation is a privately-held corporation founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Corpus Christi, Texas. BNP is an oil and gas exploration company with operations in south Texas and on Padre Island National Seashore. The company gets its name from the first names of its majority owner Barbara Canales-Black and the Chief Executive Officer Paul Black, Barbara n Paul. In the past twelve months, BNP has been working with the U.S. Park Service and local governments in Texas to ensure that they are able to profit from the destruction of the beaches in Padre Island, Texas.

Due to a legal loophole making the mineral rights underneath Padre Island privately owned, BNP received a permit from the National Park Service that would allow them to begin drilling on the shores of Padre Island -- one of only 10 National Seashores in the country. BNP’s drilling project would entail 18-wheeler trucks driving directly over the beach as often as 20 times a day. The well pad would be constructed in the sand dunes where many endangered sea turtles lay their eggs. Furthermore, in order to get the well pad in place, a portion of the sand dune would be bull dozed. The company has already set up plans to start what it has called an "aggressive drilling campaign" to drill 20 wells over the next 30 years.

BNP has downplayed environmental impacts, claiming that truck drivers have been trained to identify, mark and or move the endangered sea turtles that inhabit the island and their eggs. However the eggs are so fragile that even touching them without considerable expertise causes irreversible harm, and the sea turtles, which are the smallest in the world, are almost impossible to see from a truck.In addition, there are unknown factors such as excessive truck traffic, noise and light pollution from the drilling that could have an effect on not only the turtles but the pristine beauty of this undeveloped island.

The Bush administration has long been an ally of the oil industry, and Padre Island is the latest victim of the administration’s short-sighted policies. By allowing BNP to disrupt the beaches in Padre and potentially harm the already endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle, the White House is clearly putting profit over environmental protection.

BNP plans to drill for 70 billion cubic feet of gas, which only amounts to a one-day supply of natural gas consumption in the United States. When there are so many alternatives available, have to ask ourselves, is it really worth it?

ALARMING FACTS ABOUT BNP PETROLEUM:

• BNP Petroleum misplaced a radioactive drill bit at a drill site in Padre Island National Seashore in 2002. BNP abandoned the radioactive material at the well and buried it under red-dyed concrete.

• BNP Petroluem holds a 40% share in the Padre Island Project with Novus Petroleum of Australia (40%) and Mitsui Oil Exploration Company of Japan (20%). The Padre Island Project covers 425 square miles of the Padre Island National Seashore including 132 drilling leases totaling 62,900 acres.

• The Texas Railroad Commission (the agency responsible for oil and gas industry regulation) issued numerous violations to BNP’s oil and gas waste disposal site in Hidalgo county, and has received complaints from neighboring landowners.

• BNP recently expanded into the commercial property business with BNP Commercial Properties. BNP Commecial Properties offers commercial space in three office buildings in Corpus Christi, the First Capital Bank Building, the Mann Building, and the Staples Building.

• BNP refuses to admit publicly when the drilling will commence and how many times. They are hiding behind Park Service regulations and protocol in order to keep the public and environmentalists from weighing in on the decision to open Padre Island to new drilling.

>> Kill the Drill on Padre Island: Overview
>> Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle
>> The Alternatives to Fossil Fuels
>> The Padre Island Factsheets

Take Action! Write the Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, demanding she revoke BNP Petroleum's drilling permit. Our online form makes it easy!

Padre Island Claymation Video! Help spread the word! BNP Petroleum's drilling project on the Padre Island National Seashore will require huge trucks such as 18-wheelers to make 20 trips a day up and down the beach. The damage this can cause to the seashore is just one of the byproducts of drilling that puts Kemp's Ridley sea turtle at a serious risk of extinction.