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BP Oil Spill Investigations

According to a BP internal investigation to be released within the next week or so, engineers working on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig when it exploded misinterpreted well data that clearly warned of the impending blowout.

 

Their satisfaction with the test results not only led to eleven deaths, but to major damage of Gulf States and the largest oil spill in history.

When the pressure tests were approved, workers on the rig began replacing drilling fluid with seawater, a much lighter substitute. Natural gas unknowingly leaking into the pipeline could not be stopped by the lighter seawater. The natural gas therefore shot up the pipe, causing the rig explosion.

The internal report from BP will be released within the next ten days, but major questions will remain. BP employees working on the rig at the time of the explosion ignored warnings from Halliburton about the potential disaster, and the public wants answers. Rig managers also skipped important cement tests to gauge the quality of the pipe.

These avoidable but disastrous mistakes have inspired the Obama Administration to require all Gulf oilrigs to have their blowout preventers officially certified before they continue work.

BP, Transocean, and Halliburton continue to struggle to save face. While BP still blames Transocean and Halliburton for their part in the disaster, both accused companies maintain that they were following BP’s specific guidelines.  According to government investigators, BP and Transocean are partially at fault.

The investigative report from BP, if it’s really trying to focus on the causes of this disaster, should concentrate on the disorganization of the company. Their miscommunication and misguided procedures led to this disaster all too easily. According to a Huffington Post article, 5 of the 12 managers overseeing the Deepwater Horizon rig had been with the company for less than 6 months.

BP’s lack of organization is the leading cause of the BP Oil Spill, not the individual decisions made by workers who may or may not have been qualified to make them.



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