BP was told of oil safety fault ‘weeks before blast’
A Deepwater Horizon rig worker has told the BBC that he identified a leak in the oil rig’s safety equipment weeks before the explosion.
Tyrone Benton said the leak was not fixed at the time, but that instead the faulty device was shut down and a second one relied on.
Several rig workers the BBC spoke to who were on the Deepwater Horizon said there was pressure in April to work fast.
Work to prepare and then seal the well was behind schedule and had to be completed before a production rig could move in and start turning profits.
“Too many jobs were being done at one time. It should have just really slowed down and just took one job at a time, to make sure everything was done the way it should have been,” said Mr Benton, who is now suing BP and Transocean for negligence.
BP has responded to Mr Benton’s account saying Transocean was responsible for both the maintenance and operation of the blowout preventer.