Transocean blames BP for Deepwater disaster

Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig at the centre of last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill, has blamed BP, as operator of the well, for decisions it said led to the fatal disaster.

The conclusions, reached after an internal investigation into the incident, found BP's decisions on design and construction of the Macondo well had compromised its integrity and compounded the likelihood of its failure, the FT reports. The decisions, claimed Transocean, were “driven by BP’s knowledge the geological window for safe drilling was becoming increasingly narrow”. Transocean alleges in the two weeks preceding the accident on 20 April, BP changed its plans for the well five times and the final procedure implemented never received the required regulatory approval. The compa...