A geyser of blame

Friday, May 14, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

Executives from the three main companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill testified in back-to-back Senate committee hearings Tuesday, and when asked who was to blame, BP America Chairman Lamar McKay offered what sounded like a magnanimous statement.

“Let me be really clear: Liability, blame, fault — put it over here,” he said. “Our obligation is to deal with the spill, clean it up and make sure the impacts of that spill are compensated, and we’re going to do that.”

But, as the Associated Press noted, by “over here” he meant the witness table, where McKay was joined by Transocean CEO Steven Newman and Halliburton President Tim Probert. Transocean owns the Deepwater Horizon, the rig that BP was leasing before it sank, and Halliburton was working to encase the well in cement.

But where the blame really lies is difficult to tell. They all pointed fingers at each other.

McKay suggested Transocean because the company owned the safety equipment that failed. Newman wondered about the work that Halliburton was doing, and Probert said his company’s actions were directed by BP.

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski responded by saying, “I would suggest to all three of you that we are all in this together.”

Indeed. While the executives testified, oil continued spewing out of the well into the ocean, and no one appeared any closer to capping the well.

While the hearing in Washington was going on, the Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service met in Louisiana to begin their formal investigation.

There, as well, representatives from the companies tried to shift the blame, which is not helpful.

However, the hearing in Louisiana started to bring more facts to light. Witnesses said the rig had been having problems for some time with what one person called a “difficult” well.

Government oversight was also questioned. The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported that Coast Guard Capt. Hung Nguyen, who is leading the federal government’s inquiry, was frustrated when he learned from a government rig inspector that the government didn’t keep records of tests run on the rig.

One witness said the rig’s captain told him the crew had hit the kill switch to shut off the well before they evacuated the rig but didn’t know if it worked. However, the blowout preventer, a seabed valve designed to stop explosions like this, failed.

One MMS official noted that the agency’s regulations require companies to prove their blowout preventers have enough power to function, but BP was never asked to supply that information. The official in charge of approving drilling applications said he didn’t know that was required.

As Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said in one of the Senate hearings, the explosion was likely caused by a “cascade of failures.” There will undoubtedly be plenty of blame to go around once these investigations are complete. What Congress and regulators need to know is what went wrong so they can change the law and safety procedures to prevent something like this from happening again.