By Gerald Helguero: Subscribe to Gerald's RSS feed
May 25, 2010 8:38 PM EDT
BP chief executive Tony Hayward on Tuesday said that while it was understandable that people are seeking a simple answer about causes and who to blame for the deadly Deepwater Horizon fire and oil spill in the Gulf, it was still too early to determine.
"A number of companies are involved, including BP, and it is simply too early - and not up to us - to say who is at fault," Hayward said in released statement.
BP said its internal investigation team started sharing information yesterday with the Obama administration. The company says its initial findings include "issues for further inquiry" although the team has not yet reached conclusions about the causes of incident, which is already one of the largest, if not the largest oil spill disaster in U.S history.
Earlier this month President Barack Obama said oil industry firms BP, Transocean, and Halliburton as well as the federal government were all to blame for the accident.
Obama said at the time he hadn't been impressed by the "ridiculous spectacle" of oil industry executives "falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else" during Congressional hearings about the incident where they testified.
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The company said Tuesday it has shared information with the Department of the Interior and would do so with all official regulatory inquiries into the accident "as requested."
"This accident was brought about by the failure of a number of processes, systems and equipment," BP said.
The company named seven mechanisms that should have prevented the accident or reduced the impact of the spill. The mechanisms were related to well construction and operation of an emergency device called a blowout preventer.
The company was investigating cement seals, a complex set of pipes installed beneath the sea floor known as a casing system, well pressure tests, oil and gas detection through the blowout preventer, and backup systems for activating the blowout preventer.
Government investigations into the causes of the spill include one by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which is one of various Congressional committees which has held hearings on the issue.
A separate joint investigation is being undertaken by the Department of the Interior and Department of Homeland Security. The pair of agencies are also assisting BP in response efforts to shut down the flow of oil from the well, protecting shorelines and cleaning up the spill on the water, beaches and wetlands.
Some lawmakers have also asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate BP's actions with respect to civil and criminal laws that may have been violated by the company.
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