KENNER, La. -- A BP PLC well team leader on the Deepwater Horizion testified Thursday that cost-savings didn't eclipse safety in operational decisions on the ill-fated oil rig.
"When it comes to safety, never," John Guide told a federal panel investigating the April 20 explosion of the BP-leased rig off the Louisiana coast.
Guide said he believed BP properly managed risk. He said well team leaders, contractors and representatives of rig owner Transocean Ltd. met regularly to discuss safety.
He testified safety protocols were set by Transocean. Anyone on the rig had the right to stop work if they detected a safety problem, he said.
Earlier Thursday, Natalie Roshto, widow of Transocean floor hand Shane Roshto, who died in the blast, said before her husband reported for his fateful three-week shift on the rig "he felt like he was going back to problems."
"From day one, he deemed this the `well from hell,"' she said. "He said Mother Nature didn't want us drilling here."
Roshto said the project seemed to have "just a bit more high pressure" because it was behind schedule.
The Deepwater Horizon was preparing to complete exploration in the Macondo well a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico about 40 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River when it exploded late on the night of April 20.
The rig sank two days later. Since then, millions of gallons of oil have poured into the Gulf, fouling marshes and beaches and shutting much of the coastal fishing industry.
The Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement will complete the latest in a series of hearings on Friday. The panel will resume hearings Aug. 23-27 in Houston.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
