Cost-cutting is blamed for BP oil spill

The White House oil commission has released a preview today (January 6) of its final report on the cause of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The preview states that the BP oil spill was avoidable, and was caused, in part, by costs and time saving decisions.

In a preview of its final report, the national oil spill commission said systematic management failure at BP, Transocean, and Halliburton caused the blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico, and warned that such disaster would likely recur because of industry complacency.

"Whether purposeful or not, many of the decisions that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean made that increased the risk of the Macondo blowout clearly saved those companies significant time (and money)," the report said.

In a chart it identified nine decisions that caused risk, seven of which also saved the companies' time.

The well was owned by BP which the report said, did not enforce the proper controls to manage the increased risks. "BP did not have adequate controls in place to ensure that key decisions in the months leading up to the blow-out were safe or sound from an engineering perspective," stated the report.

It carried on saying: "Most of the mistakes and oversights at Macondo can be traced back to a single overarching failure – a failure of management."

Previously the commissions chairman said that such complacency is common among the oil industry and the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

Co-chairman Bob Graham said in a statement: "This disaster likely would not have happened had the companies involved been guided by an unrelenting commitment to safety first. And it is likely would not have happened if the responsible governmental regulators had the capacity and will to demand world-class safety standards."

The full report, published on January 11, will cover the cause of the oil rig blow-out which spilt 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf. Its findings could be pivotal for the lawsuit filed last month by the US Justice Department against all the companies involved in the oil spill, for the effect it had on the environment.

Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed by Gulf residents who have lost their livelihoods due to the BP oil disaster.

The report warns that BP, and the other companies involved, could be required to give out billions of dollars in compensation to all whose lives have been effected by the oil disaster.

The explosion was caused by sudden kicks of gas through the 5,000 ft riser pipe connecting the well to the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that went undetected for several crucial moments. The report identified a series of mistakes that eventually made the blow-out "inevitable".

The report also paid attention to the faulty cementing job that Halliburton preformed, at the bottom of the well, but blamed the BP for poor oversight.

"Based on evidence currently available, there is nothing to suggest that BP's engineering team conducted a formal, disciplined analysis of the combined impact of these risk factors on the prospects for a successful cement job." The report said.

Halliburton claims that the report has made use of selective information. BP said that it is now working with government regulators to ensure that the experience in the Gulf leads to improved practices.

Author: Charity Knight | Climate Action

Image: lagohsep | flickr