BP blasted in expert panel report

An independent panel of experts has excoriated BP and contractors over ignoring and missing warning signs prior to the Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers in the Gulf of Mexico.

The National Academy of Engineering released its 28-page report about the blowout on Tuesday. In it, the oil giant and other companies demonstrated an “insufficient consideration of risk” and that they had failed to learn from previous “near misses.”

A spokesman for the 15-member study committee stated that efforts continued to plug the well for future use despite numerous warnings of possible hazards. Some of the warnings was the loss of materials in the hole a month prior to the explosion and tests that revealed that the cement would not be an adequate barrier against the release of oil and gas.

There is a final report scheduled for June 2011.

Source: Associated Press