The question of who deserves the blame for the April 20 oil-rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico will be discussed today in Washington, as executives with BP America, Transocean and Halliburton go before two committees in the Senate.
BP says it has already spend $350 million in cleanup efforts, and undoubtedly will continue to spend hundreds of millions more as the oil leak is not close to being sealed.
The Wall Street Journal has reviewed the testimony of BP and Transocean execs, and says there appears to be a conflict between the two on who is ultimately responsible. BP's Lamar McKay will reportedly say his company is trying to find out why Transocean's blowout preventer "failed to operate."
But Transocean's CEO Steven Newman, will say the explosion occurred,
Mr. Newman of Transocean says in his prepared testimony that it "simply makes no sense" to blame the blowout preventer. At the point that the blowout occurred, "the well barriers—the cementing and the casing—were responsible for controlling any pressure from the reservoir," his testimony says.
Florida Democratic U.S. Senator Bill Nelson will testify himself at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. In remarks released to the media last night, Nelson will say that
"The scope of this crisis in the Gulf should prompt the President and all members of Congress to re-examine Big Oil's safety claims. Cleary we’re going to have to require that drilling rigs and production platforms have reliable backup systems. Right now they are sorely lacking. Why else would BP be scrambling for any solutions to reign in or stop the gushing crude. I wouldn’t call injecting junk into the blowout preventer to be a reliable backup system.”
This article appears in May 5-11, 2010.