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By Kristen Hays
NEW ORLEANS, Feb 28 (Reuters) - BP Plc's investigation of its disastrous 2010 Gulf of Mexico blowout didnot address cost overruns on the well, the executive who ran theprobe said on Thursday - the final day of testimony this week inthe massive civil trial over the spill.
Plaintiffs contend that cost concerns prompted crew memberson the doomed Deepwater Horizon rig to rush wrap up thedrilling. The executive who led BP's internal investigation saidthe company did not focus on that angle.
"I don't recall it being part of our discussions," Mark Bly,BP's global head of safety and operational risk, said when askedabout cost overruns at the Macondo well on the third day oftestimony in the trial.
Bly, whose name is on the report of BP's internal probe,said he and the then-chief executive, Tony Hayward, set thescope of the probe three days after the explosion in April 2010,and did not include budgetary issues.
Plaintiffs lawyer Paul Sterbcow noted the Macondo welloperation had been $60 million over budget and more than a monthpast schedule at a cost of $1 million per day.
The U.S. Justice Department, Gulf Coast states andplaintiffs are suing well operator BP, rig owner Transocean Ltd, well cement provider Halliburton Co and others.
The plaintiffs have argued BP put profits above safety, andnoted forensic engineer Bob Bea, co-founder of the Center forCatastrophic Risk Management at the University of California,Berkeley, testified this week that there was "ample evidence ofintense pressure" from BP to save time and money.
Bly told Justice Department trial attorney Mike Underhillthat BP forged ahead with its plan to pump Halliburton-madecement into the well as part of finishing the job without havingreceived all the tests Halliburton conducted on the mixture tomake sure it would harden as required.
Bly said he thought they got results of some tests, but notall. When asked if that decision to move ahead was a decisionmade by BP supervisors on the rig or onshore, Bly replied, "Ibelieve that would be an onshore decision."
BP contends that Halliburton made substandard cement, whichfailed to provide an adequate barrier to oil and gas that laterblew out. Halliburton disputes that contention.
Underhill, in a rare light-hearted moment at the trial, hadstarted his questioning of Bly with a joke about automaticfederal spending cuts due to take effect on Friday. "You get meone day before my employer furloughs me," Underhill said.
Bly, who said he plans to retire in about two months, waspromoted to serve on the London-based oil company's executivemanagement committee shortly after CEO Bob Dudley took the helmin October 2010.
He earlier went through his conclusions in the report, whichspread the blame for mistakes that led to the well rupture andexplosion, which killed 11 men and let more than 4 millionbarrels of crude oil foul the Gulf.
The report laid most of the blame on Transocean, setting thetone for finger-pointing among the companies.
Allocation of blame is one of two focuses in this firstphase of the non-jury trial before U.S. District Judge CarlBarbier, which will run for months if it does not settle first.The other focus is severity of negligence among the companies.
Bly said BP's well site leader and Transocean crewsmisinterpreted a pressure test that signaled possible trouble inthe well, losing key reaction time. If pressure in the oilreservoir deep under the seabed is higher than that in the well,oil and gas will flow upward.
"That risk was neither recognized or addressed until it wastoo late?" Sterbcow asked.
"There were signs that the well was flowing," Bly said. "Itdidn't seem to be recognized or reacted to."
The case is In re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig "DeepwaterHorizon" in the Gulf of Mexico, on April 20, 2010, No.10-md-02179, in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District ofLouisiana.
