By Stephanie Grace
NEW ORLEANS, March 4 (Reuters) - BP's internal investigationof the company's Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 ignored atelephone call between BP supervisors about a critical pressuretest that was misinterpreted with deadly consequences, a lawyercontended in aggressive questioning on Monday.
Transocean Ltd lawyer Brad Brian pushed BP's globalhead of safety and operational risk on why the report did notmention that call even though investigators mentioned it intheir notes.
BP's report placed most of the blame for theexplosion and spill on Transocean, whose Deepwater Horizon rig,under contract with BP, had been drilling a mile-deep well whena surge of gas caused a blowout that killed 11 workers.
"I think my team's thinking was ... it was mentioned, itwasn't in the form of consulting about it," replied Mark Bly,BP's global head of safety and operational risk who headed thecompany's investigation.
The U.S. Justice Department, U.S. Gulf Coast states affectedby the spill and plaintiffs - all of whom are suing BP,Transocean and other companies - contend that BP put profitsover safety in the drilling job that was over budget andoverdue.
The collective plaintiffs contend that had well site leaderDon Vidrine heeded concerns of onshore senior drilling engineerMark Hafle about that pressure test and stopped the operation,the disaster could have been averted.
BP has acknowledged that engineers misinterpreted theresults of the test, but holds both London-based BP andTransocean responsible for that.
Brian also questioned whether Bly and his investigative teamlooked into whether BP's decisions were driven by saving timeand money.
"We didn't look at that specific question," Bly said.
The trial entered its second week on Monday before U.S.District Judge Carl Barbier in the first of three phases. Thefirst phase focuses on allocation of blame among the companiesinvolved and the severity to negligence on their part.
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