BP Says Transocean, Halliburton Have to Share Blame for Gulf Rig Explosion

BP Plc, facing billions of dollars in damages and penalties for causing the largest U.S. oil spill, says its investigation shows other companies made mistakes that led to the Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion.

BP managers had direct involvement in just one of the eight judgment errors and equipment failures that led to the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, according to the company’s internal investigation. The explosion killed 11 workers and spewed crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico for almost three months.

The London-based company also plans to submit the report to a joint U.S. Coast Guard-Interior Department investigative panel that is scheduled to hold public hearings on the catastrophe Oct. 4 to 8 in Louisiana.

‘Fatally Flawed’ Well

“BP is happy to slice up blame, as long as they get the smallest piece,” U.S. Representative Edward Markey, head of the U.S. House Energy and Environment Subcommittee, said in an e-mailed statement.

Transocean said BP’s report concealed Macondo’s “fatally flawed” design, which “set the stage” for the explosion. The Switzerland-based driller cited a series of cost-savings decisions by BP that added risk, including a design that cut the number of barriers to gas flow.