NEW ORLEANS -- BP's own internal investigation spreads the blame for that massive oil spill in the Gulf.
The April 20 explosion in the Deepwater Horizon rig led to the deaths of 11 crew members and the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.
The oil company's report, released Wednesday, finds that multiple companies and work teams contributed to the accident.
"I would agree with BP to the degree that there were obvious failures in terms of the control systems in place, the decision making systems that were in place, and perhaps the experience of some of the crew," said Professor Eric Smith from Tulane University's Energy Institute.
Smith said since BP was calling the shots on the rig, it should shoulder the lion share of the blame.
"Yes, there was some distribution of blame to go around, but the primary source of decisions on the rig was the BP field supervisor," Smith said.
The BP report found that:
- Faulty cementing allowed oil and gas to burst out of well.
- BP and Transocean workers "incorrectly accepted" results of a pressure test on the rig.
- The rig crew did not recognize and act on the influx of hydrocarbons into the well.
- Gas that surged to the rig should have been vented overboard, but was vented directly onto the rig
- And, the blowout preventer was improperly maintained and not able to seal the well.
"It certainly admits fault. It certainly admits that they did things wrong," said New Orleans Attorney Scott Bickford. "I'm not sure it admits the extent to which things were done wrong prior to the explosion."
Bickford represents the family of a worker killed in the accident. He said while Halliburton, which did the cementing on the rig, and Transocean, which owned the Deepwater Horizon, may have played a role in the disaster, the main cause of the accident was BP's faulty well design.
"Their actions in designing the well," said Bickford. "Their actions in pushing this well to completion the way they did, I think in total will amount to gross negligence on their part."
Meanwhile, National Incident Commander Thad Allen called the BP report, just one tool of many that the government will use in its investigation.
"I think it is a piece of information that adds to our understanding of it, but it is not the end all, be all that's gonna have to be done to address the issues why it happened and what needs to happen in the future," said Allen.
Transocean blasted BP's report, calling it a self-serving attempt to conceal the real cause of the explosion, the BP well.
The rig owner said, "In both its design and construction, BP made a series of cost-saving decisions that increased risk, in some cases, severely."
