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â€™BP oil rig blast could have avertedâ€™

18 February 2011 04:34 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. US investigators say the April 20 blast on BPâ€™s Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico could have been averted if an engineer had been consulted about a key test results, APA reports quoting Press TV.

More than 100 million gallons of oil poured into the Mexican Gulf after the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig exploded, 50 miles (80 km) off the coast of Louisiana on April 20, 2010 killing 11 workers and causing the worst environmental disaster in US history.

The White House oil spill commission in charge of a probe into the disaster stated in a report on Thursday that BP supervisors failed to consult with a knowledgeable company engineer about unexpected results from a critical negative pressure test on the rig, AFP reported.

"If anyone had consulted him or any other shore-based engineer, the blowout might never have happened," the US investigators said in a statement.

The report by the commissionâ€™s chief counsel, Fred Bartlit, has blamed the disaster on defective cement job by Halliburton as well as the rig crewâ€™s misreading of the pressure test, which should have warned BP supervisors of an imminent problem.

According to the report, BPâ€™s engineers had problems with the Halliburton engineer assigned to the Macondo well for years, and did not review his work carefully.

"Events likely would have turned out differently," if BPâ€™s well site leaders had brought their faulty explanation of the test results to either of the visiting engineers, the report added.

"The sad fact is that this was an entirely preventable disaster," said Bartlit, adding that "poor decisions by management were the real cause."