Washington, DC--Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY-17) expressed his support for the Blowout Preventer Act of 2010, which was debated today in the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment.  Rep. Engel is a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.  The Act would establish a number of standards and procedures to help ensure the use of appropriate safety equipment and practices during high-risk oil and gas drilling activities.  To view Rep. Engel’s comments - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AKzVbD1W-U

Rep. Engel said, “In the wake of the explosion on BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig, and corresponding blowout of the Macondo well, it has become imperative to learn the causes of the explosion and to investigate the inept industry practices for drilling which enabled it to occur.  Simply put, this disaster could have been prevented if BP had not taken too many risks.  Now Congress must take decisive action to hold the appropriate parties accountable, and make sure that this type of catastrophic blowout cannot happen in the future.”

The Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigation has revealed that numerous key safety precautions were neglected by BP prior to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.  All of these decisions saved time and money for BP, but increased the risk of a blowout.

• BP chose a well design that had only a single barrier to prevent flow of dangerous gases instead of using a design that had multiple barriers;
• BP ignored the advice of its contractor and chose a cement sealing approach for the well that was predicted to fail;
• BP failed to conduct a key cement test;
• BP failed to fully circulate well fluids, and
• BP did not install a key piece of equipment at the wellhead prior to the explosion.

The Blowout Preventer Act of 2010 would set strict new requirements to ensure that these basic well control guidelines cannot be ignored at any high-risk well.

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