Congress Asks Tough Questions of BP

The United States Congress wants to know how the fatal explosion of the Deepwater Horizon that killed 11 maritime workers could have happened. On June 14, 2010, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations sent a letter to BP CEO Tony Hayward.

Congress has raised serious questions about crucial decisions that BP made in the days and hours prior to the explosion. They are alleging that multiple decisions concerning the well, known as Macondo, were made for economic reasons. They are focusing on five crucial decisions made by BP in spite of warnings of the company’s own personnel:

1. The decision to use a well design with few barriers to gas flow
2. The failure to use a sufficient number of “centralizers” to prevent channeling during the cement process
3. The failure to run a cement bond log to evaluate the effectiveness of the cement job
4. The failure to circulate potentially gas-bearing drilling muds out of the well
5. The failure to secure the wellhead with a lockdown sleeve before allowing pressure on the seal from below

The letter by Congress cites that these five decisions BP made posed a trade-off between cost and well safety.

If you or someone you know has been injured on the Deepwater Horizon or during the cleanup efforts, you should contact one of our experienced maritime lawyers at the Law Offices of Vujasinovic & Beckcom P.L.L.C. at (713) 224-7800 or (877) 724-7800.