Date: 20-Jul-10
Country: USA
Author: Paritosh Bansal & Sakthi Prasad
 

Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon, off Louisiana, April 21, 2010.
Photo: Reuters/U.S. Coast Guard/Handout

U.S. authorities probing BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are looking into why workers missed signs of an impending explosion and have drawn up a list of more than 20 anomalies in the crew's response to them, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

Investigators are also looking at decisions made by employees of Transocean Ltd, the rig's owner, and disagreements between workers from the two companies, the paper reported on its website, citing an internal document put together by investigators.

BP had leased the Transocean-owned rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, causing the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

The list was prepared by the U.S. Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which oversees deepwater drilling, the paper reported.

"BP and others are investigating this tragic event, and those investigations have not reached conclusions on the cause or causes," the paper cited BP spokesman Daren Beaudo as saying.

Beaudo told Reuters that investigations are ongoing -- both BP's and the federal government's -- and he could not comment on the Journal article.

A Transocean spokesman declined to comment, saying it would be inappropriate for the company to speculate.

(Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)