AugustSeptember 2010 BP reports[edit]

In late August, BP released findings from its own internal probe, which it began immediately after the
spill began. BP found that on 20 April managers misread pressure data and gave their approval for
rig workers to replace drilling fluid in the well with seawater, which was not heavy enough to prevent
gas that had been leaking into the well from firing up the pipe to the rig, causing the explosion. The
investigation also questioned why an engineer with BP, the team leader overseeing the project,
ignored warnings about weaknesses in cement outside the well which could have prevented the gas
from escaping. The conclusion was that BP was partly to blame, as was Transocean, which owned
the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.[48]
On 8 September, BP released a 193-page report on its web site. [49] The report identified 8 key
findings with respect to the cause of the accident. [49] 1) The day before the accident, cement had
been poured to fill the gap between the borehole (the actual hole in the ground) and the casing (the
outermost pipe), and this cement failed and oil moved into that space from the reservoir. 2) Oil then
entered the production casing (an inner pipe) although two barriers (one made of cement called a
"shoe track"[50]) were supposed to prevent this. 3) A test was conducted as to whether the well was
sealed (a negative pressure test), conducted by temporarily replacing heavy drilling mud with lighter
seawater. This is controlled unbalancing of the well. The test was considered successful, although it
was not, since oil was actually moving out of the reservoir. The report names the Transocean rig
crew and the BP staff on hand as having made this error. 4) When the test was completed, the
seawater was replaced with mud, stopping the flow. But later, when preparing to temporarily shut
down the well, mud was again replaced with seawater, allowing oil to flow up the riser toward the rig.
This flow was detected by pressure sensors on the rig. The report blames the rig crew for missing
the increased pressure readings. 5) When the flow was noticed, the crew activated the blowout
preventer and diverted the oil to a mud separation system rather than diverting it into the ocean;
diverting it into the ocean may have spared much of the damage. 6) The design of the mud
separation system allowed the oil to keep coming and gas carried by the oil to be vented onto the
rig. 7) The venting system allowed the gas to move into areas of the rig where it would be in contact
with electrical equipment. 8) The blowout preventer failed in several ways; controls on the rig were
disabled by the explosion; an automatic shutoff system within the blowout preventer failed, probably
due to failure of two components - a solenoid and battery; when a submersible was able to activate a
blind shear within the blowout preventer, the blind shear functioned but failed to seal the well.
Transocean, responding to the report, blamed "BP's fatally flawed well design." [51]

Settlement[edit]
On 14 November 2012, BP and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) reached a settlement. BP will
pay $4.5 billion in fines and other payments, the largest of its kind in US history. BP also agreed to
plead guilty to 11 felony counts related to the deaths of the 11 workers. The Justice Department also
filed criminal charges against three BP employees. Two employees have been indicted on
manslaughter charges, the DOJ claiming they acted negligently in their supervision of key safety
tests performed on the rig prior to the explosion and failure to alert onshore engineers of problems in
the drilling operation. Also charged was David Rainey, BP's vice president of exploration for the Gulf
of Mexico, for lying to federal investigators when he was asked how he had calculated the flow rate
of the oil surging from the ruptured well. According to the DOJ, Rainey used Wikipedia to estimate
that the Deepwater rig was leaking 5,000 barrels of oil a day. Attorney General Eric Holder said that
the criminal investigation is not yet over and that more company officials could be charged. [52][53]
The settlement includes payments of nearly $2.4 billion to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation,
$350 million to the National Academy of Sciences and about $500 million to the Securities and
Exchange Commission. BP still faces payouts to thousands of fishermen and businesses harmed by
the spill, fines under the Natural Resources Damage Assessment and payouts to impacted states.

The settlement has also not resolved what may be the largest penalty related to the spill, the fines
under the Clean Water Act. The potential fine for the spill under the act is $1,100 to $4,300 a barrel
spilled, meaning the fine could be as much as $21 billion. [52]
In addition, The U.S. government banned BP Plc from new federal contracts over its "lack of
business integrity".[54]