BP is already on the hook for tens of billions in fines and other payouts for its role in the blowout. It is now facing a trial in which the federal government, Gulf Coast states, and private plaintiffs are seeking additional civil damages that could approach $20 billion. The trial is expected to last several months so I was going to bring this up in April, which is the third anniversary of the disaster, but this was too good to wait.
On February 26, the second day of the trial, Lamar McKay, who was president of BP America at the time of the explosion, admitted in his testimony that, quoting him, “There was a risk identified for a blowout. The blowout was an identified risk, and it was a big risk, yes.”In fact, internal BP documents showed that the month before the blowout, the company had struggled with a loss of “well control” and for months before that, it had been worried about the well casing and the blowout preventer, the very things whose failure triggered the disaster.
In other words, BP knew of the risk before, for months before, and they did nothing.
McKay was asked whether he had been asked to choose cost over safety. After a long pause he replied: “Not explicitly.”
I think it's safe to conclude what he was told implicitly.
Sources:
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/bp_exec_admits_knew_of_big_risk_of_explosion/
http://grist.org/news/bp-knew-of-deepwater-risk/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=mill
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/trial_begins_for_bp_over_gulf_oil_spill/
http://business.time.com/2013/03/08/bp-warns-of-rising-costs-from-spill-settlement/#comments
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