BP Report Blames Itself,Others on Spill09/08 09:58

   In an internal report released Wednesday, BP blames itself, other companies' 
workers and a complex series of failures for the massive Gulf of Mexico oil 
spill and the drilling rig explosion that preceded it.

   NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- In an internal report released Wednesday, BP blames 
itself, other companies' workers and a complex series of failures for the 
massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the drilling rig explosion that preceded 
it.

   The 193-page report was posted on the company's website even though 
investigators have not yet begun to fully analyze a key piece of equipment, the 
blowout preventer, that should have cut off the flow of oil from the ruptured 
well but did not.

   That means BP's report is far from the definitive ruling on the blowout's 
causes, but it may provide some hint of the company's legal strategy --- 
spreading the blame around between itself, rig owner Transocean, and cement 
contractor Halliburton --- as it faces hundreds of lawsuits and possible 
criminal charges over the spill. Government investigators and congressional 
panels are looking into the cause as well.

   Members of Congress, industry experts and workers who survived the rig 
explosion have accused BP's engineers of cutting corners to save time and money 
on a project that was 43 days and more than $20 million behind schedule at the 
time of the blast.

   BP's report acknowledged, as investigators have previously suggested, that 
its engineers and employees of Transocean misinterpreted a pressure test of the 
well's integrity. It also blamed employees on the rig from both companies for 
failing to respond to warning signs that the well was in danger of blowing out.

   Outgoing BP chief Tony Hayward, who is being replaced Oct. 1 by American Bob 
Dudley, said in a statement that there was a bad cement job and a failure of a 
barrier at the bottom of the well that let oil and gas leak out.

   Transocean blasted BP's report, calling it a self-serving attempt to conceal 
the real cause of the explosion, which it blamed on what it called "BP's 
fatally flawed well design."

   "In both its design and construction, BP made a series of cost-saving 
decisions that increased risk --- in some cases, severely," Transocean said.

   Transocean said its own investigation will be concluded when all of the 
evidence is in, including critical information the company has requested of BP 
but has yet to receive.

   New Orleans attorney Scott Bickford, who represents relatives of a worker 
who died in the explosion and a worker who survived the blast, said he found no 
surprises in the report.

   "My knee-jerk reaction is that there was no huge smoking gun they found that 
hasn't already been discussed," he said.

   BP shares were up 2 percent at 414.95 pence ($6.41) in London shortly after 
the report was made public Wednesday.

   Several divisions of the U.S. government, including the Justice Department, 
Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, 
are also investigating the explosion.

   The blowout preventer was raised from the water off the coast of Louisiana 
on Saturday. As of Tuesday afternoon, it had not reached a NASA facility in New 
Orleans where government investigators planned to analyze it, so those 
conclusions were not part of BP's report.

   The rig explosion killed 11 workers and sent 206 million gallons of oil 
spewing from BP's undersea well.

   Investigators know the explosion was triggered by a bubble of methane gas 
that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as 
it burst through several seals and barriers before igniting.

   But they don't know exactly how or why the gas escaped. And they don't know 
why the blowout preventer didn't seal the well pipe at the sea bottom after the 
eruption, as it was supposed to.

   The details of BP's internal report were closely guarded --- and only a 
short list of people saw it ahead of its release.

   There were signs of problems prior to the explosion, including an unexpected 
loss of fluid from a pipe known as a riser five hours before the explosion that 
could have indicated a leak in the blowout preventer.

   Witness statements show that rig workers talked just minutes before the 
blowout about pressure problems in the well.

   At first, nobody seemed too worried, workers have said. Then panic set in.

   Workers called their bosses to report that the well was "coming in" and that 
they were "getting mud back." The drilling supervisor, Jason Anderson, tried to 
shut down the well.

   It didn't work. At least two explosions turned the rig into an inferno.

   In its report, BP defended the well's design, which has been criticized by 
industry experts.

   Other findings in the BP report include:

   ---Flammable fluids rising up the pipe toward the Deepwater Horizon rig were 
directed to a system that allowed gas to vent onto the rig, and that gas was 
then circulated by the air conditioning, heating and ventilation systems. BP 
says that if the crew had directed the fluids overboard, there might have been 
more time to respond to the pending disaster and the consequences of the 
accident may have been reduced.

   ---BP concluded that a "more thorough review and testing by Halliburton" and 
"stronger quality assurance" by BP's well team well might have identified 
potential flaws and weaknesses in the design for the cement job.

   ---BP counters the concerns that were raised prior to the explosion by 
Halliburton over the potential for a severe gas flow problem if a BP plan was 
used. Halliburton and BP were at odds over a key device, known as a 
centralizer, that is used as part of the process to plug a deepwater well like 
the oil giant was doing at the time of the disaster. Halliburton's well design 
expert testified previously he told BP officials April 15 --- five days before 
the well blew --- that fewer centralizers would cause a bigger gas flow 
problem. BP rejected Halliburton's recommendation to use 21 centralizers. 
Instead, BP used six. In its report Wednesday, BP said the decision likely did 
not contribute to the cement's failure.

   In June, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's chairmen said it was 
BP that made five crucial decisions before the Deepwater Horizon well blowout 
that "posed a trade-off between cost and well safety." One of those decisions: 
BP opted against conducting a certain kind of test of the integrity of a cement 
job at the well. The test would have cost more than $128,000 and taken 9 to 12 
hours to perform, the committee's letter notes.

   In May, senior BP drilling engineer Mark Hafle told the Coast Guard and 
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management investigators that BP didn't order the test 
even though more than 3,000 barrels of mud had been lost while drilling, a 
possible warning sign.

   The committee also criticized BP's well design.


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