Gulf oil spill firms ‘complacent’

Fred Barlit said he saw no evidence BP had cut corners to save money

Three major companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill lacked a safety culture and made serious mistakes ahead of the catastrophe, the key inquiry into the disaster has said.

The White House oil spill commission said there was a culture of complacency at BP, Transocean and Halliburton.

“There was not a culture of safety on that rig,” co-chair Bill Reilly said.

The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killed 11 workers and polluted hundreds of miles of coast.

Mr Reilly called for “top-to-bottom reform” at the companies.

Mr Reilly’s remarks came a day after an investigator on the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling said he had found no evidence BP had made risky decisions to save money.

Fred Bartlit challenged claims by members of the US Congress that choices made for economic reasons had increased the danger of a spill.

There was “no evidence at this time to suggest that there was a conscious decision to sacrifice safety concerns to save money,” he said on Monday.

“We see no instance where a decision-making person or group of people sat there aware of safety risks, aware of costs, and opted to give up safety for costs.”

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