"BP Played Big Role in Alaska Blowout Preventer Probe"

"When two Alaska state agencies received complaints in 2005 that a BP drilling contractor routinely cheated on tests of blowout preventers and that BP knew it, the agencies let the very companies accused of wrongdoing join the investigation.

Records show that attorneys and officials of BP and its contractor, Nabors Alaska, sat in with, or even in place of, state investigators when witnesses were interviewed. In at least three instances, after witnesses confirmed allegations, company lawyers took them aside for private conversations. One Nabors employee recanted his statement immediately after emerging from his private meeting with a Nabors attorney, state records show.

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission ultimately ruled there was no widespread pattern of wrongdoing and declined to levy penalties."

Richard Mauer reports for McClatchy Newspapers June 26, 2010.