BP 'breathtakingly inept' for errors that led to Deepwater Horizon blast

BP has been branded ' breathtakingly inept' by the US politician leading an investigation into the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

Bill Reilly, the co-chair of a National Commission probing the Macondo oil spill, lambasted BP and its partners Transocean and Halliburton for mistakes made in the run-up to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20.

He said the firms had made ' breathtakingly inept and largely preventable' errors and, adding that the oil industry as a whole needed a fundamental rethink of safety standards and procedures.

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He hinted that the largest oil spill in US history could have far-reaching consequences for companies seeking to perform deep water drilling, seen as the key source of future production.

'The interest group that could most threaten the future viability of offshore drilling is the oil and gas industry itself,' he said in a speech released in advance to the Wall Street Journal.

The address  -  due to be delivered to oil industry lawyers in New Orleans last night  -  is particularly significant, coming just a month before the National Commission hands in its report on the spill to President Barack Obama.

Should the White House take Reilly's views to heart, it could trigger wide-ranging regulatory reform that would have a huge impact on British oil companies such as BP and Shell.

BP alone derives around a tenth of its global oil production from the Gulf of Mexico, where a six-month moratorium on deep water drilling is currently in force.

However, the London-listed firm can take heart from the fact that Halliburton and Transocean were also named as villains, suggesting that BP is unlikely to be blamed as the only responsible party.

If BP (up 1.55p to 456.65p) were to be deemed solely culpable, the ruling would dramatically-increase the chances of the company being found guilty of 'gross negligence'.

The nightmare scenario for BP would increase the scale of its environmental fines from £3.5bn to £13.8bn.

Chief executive Bob Dudley has sought to boost BP's safety reputation  -  left in tatters after a series of accidents at the Texas City refinery, an Alaskan pipeline and the Deepwater Horizon blast.

The American has created a dedicated safety division and promised that this year's bonuses will be calculated solely on the firm's safety record.

But his comments could come back to haunt him, as did those made by gaffe-prone predecessor Tony Hayward, who pledged to focus ' laser-like' on safety.

BP 'breathtakingly inept' for errors that led to blast

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