Paper Details Effort To Control Oil Spill

A draft staff report from the government commission investigating the effort to cap the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico this year provides details and insights on the process. The 39-page working paper of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill & Offshore Drilling says both BP and the government have reason to be proud of how they responded to the crisis, and it makes several recommendations for the commission to consider in its final report. The staff paper details the relationship that evolved between the company and the government as well as some of the strain that occurred between BP engineers and government scientists. One point the paper emphasizes is how the original low estimate of the rate of oil flow from the spill may have caused early attempts to plug the spill to be unsuccessful. Recommendations include more research by oil companies on how to respond to blowouts, enhanced expertise at government agencies on deepwater drilling, and better diagnostic tools to provide accurate information.