The final report of the Presidential Commission in the US that investigated the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last year has found that cost cutting and a series of risky decisions caused the disaster.
The report blames bad management from oil multinational BP and its main business partners, Halliburton and Transocean.
In its final report on the causes of what was the largest offshore oil spill in US history, the commission said BP and its collaborators on the doomed Macondo well had lacked a system to ensure their actions were safe.
'Whether purposeful or not, many of the decisions that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean made that increased the risk of the Macondo blowout clearly saved those companies significant time [and money],' the report said.
Created by President Barack Obama in the midst of the BP spill, the panel is the first government-sanctioned group to wrap up its probe of the causes of the drilling disaster.
Charged with guiding the future of offshore drilling, the commission will release its full review of the spill and its aftermath next week.
Although the commission lacks authority to establish policy or punish companies, its conclusions could have a bearing on future criminal and civil cases relating to the spill.
The findings contradict its initial report in November, which found no evidence that Macondo project workers cut corners to save money.
The report outlines major missteps by BP; by Halliburton, which oversaw cementing for the Macondo well; and by Transocean, owner and operator of the Deepwater Horizon rig.
The report said BP's ‘fundamental mistake’ was failure to exercise caution before relying on the cement as a barrier to the flow of oil and gas up the well.
BP was also criticised for various decisions made as it attempted temporarily to abandon the Macondo well.
BP said in a statement that it supports the commission's efforts to determine the causes of the accident.
'BP is working with regulators and the industry to ensure that the lessons learned from Macondo lead to improvements in operations ... in deepwater drilling,' the company said.
The report reiterated the panel's prior criticism of Halliburton's cement job on the project.
Halliburton documents strongly suggest the company may have pumped cement into the well before receiving any test data that indicated it would be stable, the report said.
Halliburton disputed the commission's accusations about its cement testing, saying in a statement that it had received test results showing its cement formula would be stable before carrying out the Macondo job.
The commission also said US government regulators lacked the authority, resources and expertise to prevent safety lapses.
Since the spill, the Obama administration has restructured the federal offshore drilling regulator and implemented a raft of new regulations aimed at strengthening government oversight.
