BP Spreads The Blame | As I Please | Big Think

BP Spreads The Blame | As I Please | Big Think

How about this for some real corporate mumbo jumbo? BP’s own internal report into the Deepwater Horizon disaster mixes the technical with the pseudo diplomatic. But there is no doubt that BP is, to coin a phrase, trying to spread oil on troubled waters, and in that process ensure that it’s two partners Haliburton and Transocean don’t get away with escaping any of the blame – which BP believe is shared.

In the 193-page internal report released on its website, BP said that decisions made by "multiple companies and work teams" contributed to the accident, which it said arose from "a complex and interlinked series of mechanical failures, human judgements, engineering design, operational implementation and team interfaces". This means Haliburton and Transocean.

And here is the knockout line – the one that has got Transocean hopping mad;

"Over a 40-minute period, the Transocean rig crew failed to recognise and act on the influx of hydrocarbons into the well" which eventually caused the explosion. BP was leasing the Deepwater Horizon rig from Transocean, and its cement contractor was Halliburton. So the BP report was critical of the processes and actions of teams from both firms. However, in a statement issued after the report, Transocean deflected BP's criticism, calling the company's own well design "fatally flawed".