Industry NewsThe three oil firms at the centre of the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will attempt to blame each other for the disaster when they go before a US Senate hearing today.
Lamar McKay, president of BP America Inc, Steven Newman, president of the drilling company Transocean Ltd and Tim Probert, a senior executive at Halliburton Co, will face intense questioning before two Senate committees.
BP is expected to tell the Senate that the spill was due to the failure of Transocean's safety equipment designed to close off the flow of oil in case of sudden pressure change, according to US media reports.
In turn, Transocean's prepared testimony for the hearings at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Environment and Public Works Committee pins the explosion on the failure of Halliburton's cementing work to plug the underwater well.
Mr Newman's testimony claims: "All offshore oil and gas production projects begin and end with the operator, in this case BP," the Associated Press reported.
He is also expected to say BP's contractor Halliburton was responsible for encasing the well in cement and ensuring the cement's integrity.
The hearings come during a desperate race against time to stem the oil gushing from a well ruptured after the explosion at the Deepwater horizon rig last month that killed 11 workers, sank the rig and set in motion the unfolding economic and ecological disaster.
BP planned to try again today to contain the oil spilling at the rate of 5000 barrels — 210,000 gallons a day, this time with a smaller funnel than it tried previously in a failed bid to stem the flow.
The three companies face intense political pressure in the aftermath of the explosion that sank Transocean's Deepwater Horizon rig as it was finishing a well for BP. Halliburton is also being questioned for the role it played in cementing the well to stabilise its walls and plug it.
BP's stock has fallen about 15 percent since the rig blast on April 20, wiping about $30 billion (?26bn) from its market value.
Mr Newman's testimony says: "The one thing we know with certainty is that ... there was a sudden, catastrophic failure of the cement, the casing or both."
He also says the rig blew three days after the drilling was completed and the well had been sealed with cement. The workers above never knew what hit them.
"It is also clear that the drill crew had very little (if any) time to react," Mr Newman says. "The explosions were almost instantaneous."
David Nagel, executive vice president for BP America, on Monday defended his company's response to the accident.
"In terms of the spill response: that was mobilized right away," Mr Nagel told reporters. He said the failure of Transocean's blowout preventer was what "turned this incident into a really tragic situation."
"This was the last step in a series of safety steps to control the situation ... and it was expected to work," Mr Nagel said.
The executives in their testimony did not offer recommendations on how to protect workers from such explosions in the future or how to better prevent and control oil spills in the Gulf's very deep waters.