By IB Times Staff Reporter: Subscribe to IB's RSS feed
September 8, 2010 12:42 PM EDT
BP Plc said a series of complex events, rather than a single mistake or failure, led to the Gulf of Mexico tragedy.
The British oil giant said the accident arose from “a complex and interlinked series of mechanical failures, human judgments, engineering design, operational implementation and team interfaces.”
Multiple parties, including BP, Halliburton and Transocean, were involved, BP's outgoing chief executive Tony Hayward said.
The explosion at the BP-operated oil rig in April killed 11 workers and caused the worst spill in US history. BP has already spent $8 billion related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Based on a four-month probe, BP said there was a bad cement job and a failure of the shoe track barrier at the bottom of the Macondo well, which let hydrocarbons flowing up the production casing through the bottom of the well.
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The negative pressure test was accepted when it should not have been, there were failures in well control procedures and in the blow-out preventer, and the Transocean rig's fire and gas system did not prevent ignition, it said.
“This report makes that conclusion even clearer, presenting a detailed analysis of the facts and recommendations for improvement both for BP and the other parties involved,” BP's incoming chief executive Bob Dudley said.
The Transocean rig crew failed to recognize and act on the influx of hydrocarbons into the well over a 40-minute period until the hydrocarbons were in the riser and rapidly flowing to the surface, the BP investigation report said.
BP said further relevant information may be forthcoming, for example, when Halliburton's samples of the cement used in the well are released for testing and when the rig's blow-out preventer is fully examined now that it has been recovered from the sea-bed.
Transocean owned the blowout preventer, whose valves failed to close and shut off the flow of oil after the Deepwater Horizon rig caught fire, sank and ruptured pipes nearly 5,000 feet below the surface.
Halliburton, a firm which played a role in cementing the well in the days and weeks before the explosion, has previously said it complied with government standards and the well owner's construction plan.
Based on its key findings, BP said the investigation team has proposed a total of 25 recommendations directed at strengthening assurance on blow-out preventers, well control, pressure-testing for well integrity, emergency systems, cement testing, rig audit and verification, and personnel competence.
At 1:40 pm BST, shares in BP were up 2.05 percent on the FTSE 100 to 415.15 pence per share.
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