This won’t come as much of a surprise. BPs official report into the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in April and the spill after, will be less of an exercise in introspection than a blame game. The company is expected to point some of the blame at itself, but is also likely to name a number of other companies responsible for the disaster. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to maritime lawyers, who are familiar with BPs record over the past two years. The BP safety report is being compiled by the company’s safety chief Mark Bly. Approximately 70 BP employees have worked on the report, which is expected to run into 200 pages.
Nobody’s denying that other companies involved in the disaster like Transocean and Halliburton, also have questions to answer about their role in the explosion. However, we would have expected BP to look inward, step up and take much of the blame for the biggest maritime disaster in modern history.
The recent hearings by the Coast Guard into the disaster have not had BPs employees at their best. There has been much passing of the buck with top-level executives simply deciding to play dumb and not spill a word. It has been frustrating for the Coast Guard and federal officers involved in the hearings to come across such stonewalling. It also shows immense disrespect to the memory of the 11 workers who were killed when the Deepwater Horizon went up in flames.
Those families deserve answers to their questions, and it would be shameful if the BP report provides few insights, and not much else. However, BP risks increasing its liability if it admits too much blame on its part. Something tells us the company is not likely to open the floodgates of litigation even wider by taking on too much blame.
