A string of failures by BP and other companies led to the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, the British energy giant concluded yesterday as it sought to head off possible multi-billion-dollar US lawsuits.
As expected in the findings of its own inquiry, BP did not admit “gross negligence” for the rig explosion in late April that killed 11 people and caused the worst ever US environmental disaster.
It put a share of the blame on contractors Transocean and Halliburton, but it also proposed 25 recommendations, including improved staff training, designed to prevent a repeat of the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster.
A blast on April 20 at the BP-operated rig ruptured a well, causing more than four million barrels of oil to leak into the sea and sparking a giant clean-up operation.
“The investigation report provides critical new information on the causes of this terrible accident,” BP’s outgoing chief executive officer Tony Hayward said in a summary of the 200-page report.
“It is evident that a series of complex events, rather than a single mistake or failure, led to the tragedy. Multiple parties, including BP, Halliburton and Transocean, were involved.”
The company said decisions made by “multiple companies and work teams” contributed to the accident, which arose from “a complex and interlinked series of mechanical failures, human judgments, engineering design” and communication breakdowns.
The four-month probe, led by BP’s head of safety and operations Mark Bly, is viewed as key to how BP defends itself against legal proceedings involving the spill.
“This report likely does its job in providing ammo (ammunition) for BP in future court cases, where the avoidance of the charge of ‘gross negligence’ is critical,” said Peter Hutton, an oil market analyst at NCB Stockbrokers.
In the report, BP also blamed the rig’s owner Transocean and Halliburton, which had cemented the well.
Mr Hayward said key failings included a “bad cement job” at the bottom of the well that allowed gas and liquids to flow up the production casing. Additionally, the results of a negative pressure test were incorrectly accepted by BP and Transocean, while the rig’s blow-out preventer on the seabed failed to automatically seal the well.
But Transocean dismissed the report, accusing BP of having designed a “fatally flawed” well.
“This is a self-serving report that attempts to conceal the critical factor that set the stage for the Macondo incident: BP’s fatally flawed well design,” said the Swiss-based group.
The rig disaster resulted in oil spewing out into the Gulf for several months, killing wildlife and devastating the local economy as tourists stayed away.
US lawmakers have accused the oil giant of sacrificing safety to improve its profit margin but Mr Hayward denied this during a hostile grilling in Congress in June. He announced he would quit the top job in October.
Under US law, fines could be as much as $4,300 per barrel spilled, if negligence is proved.
This means BP could theoretically face fines of up to $17.6 billion for the 4.1 million barrels that poured into the sea – another 800,000 barrels were siphoned by a cap directly to ships.