"Fixes After BP Spill Not Enough, Board Says"

"HOUSTON — Federal safety regulators warned on Thursday that another disastrous offshore oil well blowout could happen despite regulatory improvements in the four years since a BP well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and dumped millions of gallons of oil into the sea.

The warning came with the release of a report by the Chemical Safety Board that placed much of the blame for the destruction of the Deepwater Horizon, the rig involved in the BP disaster, on a buckled steel drill pipe that interfered with the functioning of an emergency device in sealing the well.

The report was consistent with several other government reports on the accident, which pointed to multiple causes for the disaster. But the new report focused more acutely on the malfunction of the so-called blowout preventer, the rig’s last defense, which was supposed to cut through the drill pipe and seal the Macondo well."

Clifford Krauss reports for the New York Times June 5, 2014.

SEE ALSO:

"US Agency: Faulty Blowout Preventer Contributed To Deadly BP Spill" (Reuters)

"Gulf Operations Still Unsafe Despite Reforms -- CSB Probe" (Greenwire)