Investigator Defends Safety Tests in BP Disaster

An investigator who examined the safety device that failed to prevent last year’s BP oil spill said Monday his firm did not skip critical tests under pressure to meet a deadline to file a report on what caused the contraption not to work.

Neil Thompson, a Det Norske Veritas vice president, told a federal investigative panel that tests that were removed would not have affected the determination of why the blowout preventer failed.

DNV’s March 23 report concluded the device failed because of faulty design and a bent piece of pipe.

“We don’t believe that conclusion would change,” Thompson said.

The report appears to shift some blame for the disaster away from the oil giant and toward those who built and maintained the 300-ton safety device. It was built by Cameron and maintained by Transocean.

At least one outside expert has said the findings cast serious doubt on the reliability of all other blowout preventers used by the drilling industry.

BP and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board argue more testing should have been done before conclusions were reached. Cameron argues backup data should have been given to the parties when the report was filed.

Under intense cross-examination from a Cameron attorney, Thompson acknowledged that a final DNV computer model of where the pipe was believed to have lodged inside the blowout preventer was not completely accurate. He also acknowledged he has no operational experience on a drilling rig and had never laid eyes on a blowout preventer before being asked to participate in testing the device used with BP’s Macondo well.

Among other things, Thompson said DNV did not consider whether any damage to the side sealing packers on the blowout preventer may have contributed to the device’s failure.

The blowout preventer report by the Norwegian firm DNV was not the final word on the Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers and led to more than 200 million gallons of oil spewing from a BP well a mile (1,600 meters) beneath the Gulf of Mexico.

Monday’s testimony came during the seventh round of hearings before the joint U.S. Coast Guard-Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement investigative panel, which is looking into the causes of the April 20, 2010, rig explosion and oil spill off Louisiana. The panel expects to release some preliminary findings a few days before the anniversary of the disaster later this month.