White House Chides BP, Industry For Spill

The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, the White House panel responsible for investigating the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, has concluded that the spill was avoidable and blamed BP BP and its contractors for the accident. The Deepwater Horizon rig, exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and leading to the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The commission's report castigates BP, the second-largest European oil company, and Transocean RIG, the world's largest provider of offshore drilling services, Halliburton HAL, the world's second-largest oil services provider, for missteps that could have been avoided, the Wall Street Journal reported. The panel said all three companies did a poor job of assessing the risks associated with their decisions and failed to adequately communicate, either with one another or with their own employees, according to the Journal. The commission's full report is scheduled to be released next week. A previous internal report released BP jibes with the commission report in that multiple causes are cited as reasons behind the spill. Transocean owned the rig while Halliburton provided cement services for the Macondo well. BP operated the rig. The commission does say that BP did not opt for cost savings over safety, but does criticize the well's design, the Journal reported.