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BP, or British Petroleum PLC is the third largest oil company and is considered one of the major six “super-majors” of the world. The company employs over 80,000 workers in more than 80 countries worldwide and is listed on the London and New York Stock Exchanges and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index.
So why is BP to blame for this disaster? Ultimately the reason for this disaster is trying to save money like all big companies do. BP is the developer of the well and responsible for all of the operations on the rig even those that were subcontracted by them to other companies to perform. BP used only 6 centralizers to keep the well casing in the center of the borehole and prevent gas flow problems. It was found by a Halliburton representative that did a computer analysis that using less than 10 centralizers in this operation would result in MODERATE gas flow problems and that even using the recommended 21 centralizers could still result in a MINOR gas flow problem. This representative also did a analysis of the use of seven centralizers, one more than BP used, and found that there would be a SEVERE gas flow probability and stated this in his report to the BP engineers and representatives.. So why did they only use 6 centralizers? According to emails between BP representatives time and cost were major reasons. The rig itself was 43 days late for its next drilling location which could have led to costs exceeding 20 million in leasing fees to BP and it would take hours if not days to add more centralizers onto the well casing.
One wonders if they had headed the reports from the Halliburton representative and had also installed the 15 additional centralizers they had located in Houston TX would any of this have ever happened. We will unfortunately never know the answer to this question but what we do know is that the decision to go ahead and use only 6 of these centralizers was partly responsible for the blowout and the most disastrous oil spill in US history.