Monday, August 30, 2010

BP (NYSE:BP) Points to Own Engineers for Misreading Data

An internal investigation by BP (NYSE:BP) has reportedly found their own engineers had misread data which resulted in the deaths of 11 workers and the huge amount of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, which now is largely gone.

Bloomberg cited an unnamed source in reporting the story, saying the data that was misread was part of the problem which led to the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which was the catalyst for the accident and everything that followed.

Based on the faulty data, oil workers on the rig started to replace drilling fluid with seawater in the well. The seawater was too light to keep natural gas from entering into the well, which led to the initial explosion.

Officials at BP said they're not going to comment on the report. BP spokesman Mark Salt said, "We have not seen it ourselves. I am not going to comment on speculation."

According to BP's director of safety, Mark Bly, the report will be released sometime in the weeks ahead.

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