BP has fought safety measures for deepwater oil rigs since Clinton days

WASHINGTON - BP, the company that chartered the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Mexico in April, spent years battling federal regulators over how many layers of safeguards were needed to prevent a rig accident of the type that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon.
One area of immediate concern, industry experts said, was the lack of a remote system that would have allowed workers to clamp shut Deepwater Horizon's wellhead so it would not continue to gush oil.
The well drilled by the rig was still spilling 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico on May 4.
In a letter sent as late as 2009 to the U.S. Department of the Interior, BP objected to what it called "extensive, prescriptive regulations" proposed in new rules to toughen safety standards. "We believe industry's current safety and environmental statistics demonstrate that the voluntary programs continue to be very successful."
While BP's arguments against safeguards date to the Clinton administration, BP won the greatest concessions during the Bush administration.
The agency said operators were expected to have multiple layers of protection to prevent a spill.
But according to aides to Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who has followed offshore drilling issues for years, the industry aggressively lobbied against an additional layer of protection known as an "acoustic system," saying it was too costly. In a March 2003 report, the agency reversed course, and said that layer of protection was no longer needed.

‘Deepwater Horizon’ rig explosion injures 17 workers, burns out of control

PORT FOURCHON, La. – Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast was involved in an explosion and fire at around 10 p.m. on April 20, sending spectacular bursts of flame into the sky.
The fires were still raging on the afternoon of April 21. Nearly 24 hours after the explosion, the rig continued to burn, and authorities could not say when the flames might die out. A column of boiling black smoke rose hundreds of feet over the Gulf of Mexico as fireboats shot streams of water at the blaze.
Seventeen workers were injured, three critically, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Eleven others were reported missing after the explosion.
Of those on the rig when the accident occurred, 79 were Transocean workers, six were BP employees and 41 were contract workers.
Vice President Adrian Rose of Transocean, the rig owner, said crews before the explosion were performing routine work and that there was no sign of trouble. The rig was under contract to BP PLC.
Rose said the explosion appeared to be a blowout, in which natural gas or oil forces its way up a well pipe and smashes equipment.
The rig late on April 21 was listing by 10 degrees and said to be sinking.
According to the Transocean website, the Deepwater Horizon is 396 feet long and 256 feet wide and was located in 5,000 feet of water.
Offshore drilling is a dangerous occupation. Since 2001, there have been 69 offshore deaths, 1,349 injured and 858 fires and explosions in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the federal Minerals Management Service.