BP accused of withholding evidence on rig explosion

Energy giant BP has been accused of hiding critical evidence necessary for the investigation into its Gulf of Mexico oil spill catastrophe.

An investigation into BP’s role in the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig incident that played out for 87 days in the Gulf of Mexico is being hampered by the oil giant, according to Transocean, owner of the rig that sank to the Gulf’s floor following an explosion on April 20, killing 11 workers. In a letter sent to President Obama’s cabinet, a Transocean lawyer alleges that BP is refusing to hand over crucial data on the explosion. BP has spurned the allegation, claiming the letter contains “misguided and misleading assertions”. Steven Roberts, lawyer for Transocean, wrote in the letter: "BP has continued to demonstrate its unwillingness, if not outright refusal, to deliver even the most basic information to Transocean. "This is troubling, both in light of BP's frequently stated public commitment to openness and a fair investigation and because it appears that BP is withholding evidence in an attempt to prevent any other entity other than BP from investigating," he wrote. The letter was sent to Obama’s team as well as to leading members of Congress, a BBC report notes. Although BP has rejected the allegation, the claim could increase pressure on BP who is seen by many as being responsible for a disaster that spewed almost 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf, restricted media coverage of the disaster, initially grossly underestimated the scope of the spill, and most recently has joined forces with the US government’s assertion that most of the oil is now gone from the Gulf’s waters. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, BP has responded by calling the accusation a “publicity stunt” designed to steer attention away from Transocean’s accountability in the debacle. James Neath, associate general counsel for BP, claims the Transocean letter contained “many false and misleading assertions.” “Given its content and tone, your letter is nothing more than a publicity stunt evidently designed to draw attention away from Transocean’s potential role in the Deepwater Horizon tragedy,” Neath wrote in response to Roberts’ letter. “Our commitment to cooperate with these investigations has been and remains unequivocal and steadfast,” Neath said. US Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) is chairman of the House Energy Committee’s investigation panel and noted on Wednesday that “it has been, at times, challenging to obtain complete information from BP.” “The companies involved with the Deepwater Horizon, including BP, should be sharing information so regulators as well as the industry as a whole can understand what went wrong and how to prevent it in the future,” Stupak said in an e-mail statement. The letter from Transocean notes requests to BP, still outstanding from as far back as June 21, for 16 categories of information, including specifics on the blowout preventer’s digital pressure tests, the last line of defense against an uncontrolled oil spill. The blowout preventer failed in sealing the ruptured well. “BP has in its sole possession a significant amount of key information about the well,” Roberts said. Without the necessary information being provided, “the task of fairly determining the cause and measures to improve the safety of all offshore workers cannot be completed in a manner that instills confidence in any findings,” Roberts added. Other accusations in the letter show BP withholding information on the company’s process of closing previously drilled wells, cement tests used to seal the Macondo well and an organizational chart showing BP’s chain of command. Neath, the BP attorney, wrote back in response that some of the information “concern data and reports that are or should be in the possession of third parties,” including Halliburton, the company which provided cement for the blown-out well. The two letters are now added to an ongoing scheme of finger-pointing that began shortly after the explosion. In a Senate Energy Committee hearing on May 11, BP America’s chairman Lamar McKay said: “Transocean’s blowout preventer failed to operate.” Steve Newman, Transocean’s CEO told the same hearing that “all offshore oil and gas production projects begin and end with the operator.” Three days later, after considerable media coverage and public outrage over the comments, Obama called the finger pointing between Halliburton, BP and Transocean a “ridiculous spectacle.”