Cost cuts and time saving caused BP oil spill

Decisions taken by the three main contractors involved in the BP oil spill to save both money and time contributed to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a White House panel.A 48-page report blasted safety standards across the industry, but reserved special attention for BP, Halliburton and rig-owner Transocean. "Whether purposeful or not, many of the decisions that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean made that increased the risk of the Macondo blow-out clearly saved those companies significant time (and money)," wrote the presidential panel."BP did not have adequate controls in place to ensure that key decisions in the months leading up to the blow-out were safe or sound from an engineering perspective."It found that none of those involved had a failsafe system in place capable of coping with a disaster on the scale of last April's blast on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers."This disaster likely would not have happened had the companies involved been guided by an unrelenting commitment to safety first," said Bob Graham, former Florida governor and a co-chairman of the commission, in a statement Wednesday.The report highlighted "failures to appreciate risk" and criticised BP's handling of the attempt at sealing the broken well with cement."Based on evidence currently available, there is nothing to suggest that BP's engineering team conducted a formal, disciplined analysis of the combined impact of these risk factors on the prospects for a successful cement job," it said.And it warns a similar catastrophe could occur again unless companies get their act together and both the industry and government initiate reform."The blowout was not the product of a series of aberrational decisions made by rogue industry or government officials that could not have been anticipated or expected to occur again," reads the report."Rather, the root causes are systemic and, absent significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, might well recur."