"Conflict of Interest Questions Raised in Blowout Preventer Testing"

"A Transocean supervisor who worked on the Deepwater Horizon rig before it exploded has since participated in an investigation of the blowout preventer that failed to stop gushing oil from the well it was drilling — a possible conflict of interest that a congressional critic says threatens the integrity of the probe.

According to documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle, the Transocean employee has manipulated equipment on the 50-foot-tall, 300-ton blowout preventer, while a government contractor runs it through a battery of tests in New Orleans.

Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon, which included the blowout preventer, and BP leased the rig to drill its doomed Macondo well."

Jennifer Dlouhy reports for the Houston Chronicle's FuelFix blog December 21, 2010.