BP Plc’s “continued refusal to provide documents” is blocking efforts to determine the cause of the spill at the company’s well in the Gulf of Mexico, rig owner Transocean Ltd said today.
BP hasn’t provided documents requested by Transocean since June 21, Steven Roberts, an attorney for the company, said in a letter dated yesterday to BP and copied to officials in the Obama administration and members of Congress. BP leased the rig that exploded on April 20 from Transocean.
Executives of London-based BP and Vernier, Switzerland- based Transocean have publicly disputed responsibilities for operations on the rig and for steps that may have contributed to its collapse, killing 11 workers and triggering the largest US oil spill.
Without access to the information, “the task of fairly determining the cause and measures to improve the safety of all offshore workers cannot be completed in a manner that instills confidence in any findings,” Roberts said in the letter.
Elizabeth Ashford, a spokeswoman for BP, said the company was disappointed by the assertions in the letter, which she called “misguided and misleading”.
“We have been at the forefront of cooperating with various investigations commissioned by the US government and others into the causes of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy,” she said. “Our commitment to cooperate with these investigations has been and remains unequivocal and steadfast.”
Blowout preventor
Transocean’s letter lists outstanding requests for 16 categories of information, including details on digital pressure tests on the blowout preventor, a last line of defense against an uncontrolled spill. The device failed to seal BP’s ruptured Macondo well.
“BP has in its sole possession a significant amount of key information about the well, including real-time data collected by BP at its Houston office, documents, logs, cementing and operational reports, and seismic data that are critical to identifying the cause of the tragic loss of eleven lives and the pollution of the Gulf of Mexico,” Roberts said.
The letter also accuses BP of withholding information on the process the company used to close previously drilled wells, tests on cement used to seal the Macondo well, and an organisational chart establishing a chain of command at BP.
The letter and BP’s response continues a pattern of finger- pointing since the explosion.
Lamar McKay, chairman of BP America, told a Senate Energy Committee hearing on May 11 that “Transocean’s blowout preventor failed to operate.”
Steven Newman, Transocean’s chief executive officer, told the same panel that “all offshore oil and gas production projects begin and end with the operator”.
Transocean fell $1.43, or 2.6 per cent, to $52.65 at 1 pm in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. BP’s American depositary receipts, each equal to six ordinary shares, fell 88 cents, or 2.4 per cent, to $36.42.
Florida bill
Florida may send BP Plc a claim for more than $1 billion to close a budget gap after the largest US oil spill slashed tax receipts from tourism.
Steve Yerrid, a Tampa lawyer chosen by Florida Governor Charlie Crist to advise him on legal issues concerning the spill, said the state may seek an initial payment in the “lower range” of billions of dollars to make up for lost tax revenue.
States that filed claims for funds spent or revenue lost because of BP’s spill in the Gulf of Mexico would be joining idled fishermen and empty hotels struggling because tourists stayed away.
