BP report covers everyone in blame for disaster

BP has blamed itself, other companies’ workers and a complex series of failures for the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the drilling rig explosion that preceded it.

The findings were made in a 193-page internal report posted on the company’s website yesterday, even though investigators have not yet begun to fully analyse a key piece of equipment, the blowout preventer, that should have cut off the flow of oil from the ruptured well but failed.

That means BP’s report is far from the definitive ruling on the blowout’s causes, but it may provide some hint of the company’s legal strategy – spreading the blame around, between itself, rig owner Transocean, and cement contractor Halliburton – as it faces hundreds of lawsuits and possible criminal charges over the spill.