The presidential commission examining the Deepwater Horizon accident has determined that several missteps contributed last April's blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, including poor decision-making by the companies' management and government regulators. According to an excerpt from its report, the commission found the tragedy "was not the product of a series of abberational decisions made by a rogue industry...the root causes are systemic" and should be corrected.

Among the failures highlighted in the document are gaps in communications between the rig workers on the Deepwater Horizon and within their companies, a lack of effective oversight by government regulators, and the failure of managers to understand the consequences of their decisions.

The commission identified nine decisions that incr... more »

The lead investigator for the presidential panel examining the Deepwater Horizon accident yesterday said he has found no evidence that anyone involved in the Macondo well took shortcuts to save money.

Fred H. Bartlit Jr. told the commission, "To date we have not seen a single instance where a human being made a conscious decision to favor dollars over safety." His findings disputed the claims of members of Congress and other investigators who have accused BP, Transocean and Halliburton of cutting corners. The Macondo well blowout killed 11 workers and resulted in a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

After hearing Bartlit's preliminary findings into the causes of the accident, Commission co-chairman William Reilly told... more »

BP today released the results of its own investigation into the Deepwater Horizon accident. It determined that a series of mechanical failures, the misinterpretation of data, and other factors attributable to all of the companies working on the rig led to the explosions, fire and the deaths of 11 offshore workers.

In a news release, BP reported that crew "failed to recognise (sic) and act on" hydrocarbons that flowed up the well casing for 40 minutes. Some of the gas entered the engine rooms through the ventilation system where it might have ignited. Although the blowout preventer should have stopped the flow of hydrocarbons even after the fire began, it failed to function properly.

BP's investigative team recommended 25 actions to prevent a similar accident from occurring in the future. B... more »

High seas have forced BP to postpone efforts to remove the containment cap on the Macondo well. The company says engineers are standing by, waiting to remove the cap and the battered blowout preventer (BOP) before replacing the BOP with one from the Deepwater Driller II. No oil is expected to be spilled during the operation.

In related news today:

• Bloomberg reports that BP engineers misread pressure data on the Macondo well before the explosion and fire. Their positive interpretation of the data led to the decision to replace the heavy drilling fluids with lighter seawater, which could not prevent natural gas from rising from the well leading to the explosion and fire.
• Platts reports that two more sessions of hearings are likely to be held before the national commission investigating the... more »

For the first time in more than two months, the Macondo well is not leaking oil and gas into the Gulf.

The well has been shut in temporarily as part of the well integrity test. According to reports, engineers will huddle around 8:00 p.m. this evening to discuss whether the new cap, which was lowered on to the blowout preventer earlier this week, will effectively stop the flow over a period of time.

Kent Wells of BP is sending out updates on the well testing via Twitter. You can follow his announcements here.

Under the testing process, engineers planned to slowly close the cap, called a three ram capping stack, and to monitor the pressure in the well. A pressure of 6,000 pounds-per-square-inch (psi) or higher would signal that the well below the seabed had not been damaged. A lower pressure... more »