Exploded rig was not inspected as frequently as it should be by Zuzana Zelenakova

According to the Associated Press investigation, the inspections of the exploded rig Deepwater Horizon in Gulf of Mexico were neglected. The rig was supposed to be inspected at least once a month, however, the federal agency responsible for its safe operating seems to have neglected the regular inspections. The rig exploded on April 20, 2010 killing 11 people and causing enormous environmental catastrophe. Oil is constantly pouring into the water in the Gulf, estimated 210,000 gallons per day. According to the reports from May 3, 2010, the oil slick covers about 2,500 square miles (6,500 km²). British energy company BP is held responsible for the catastrophe and will ! bear all the financial consequences most likely. Although the company accepted responsibility, it claims the explosion was not their fault as the rig was operated by Transocean Ltd at the time. The federal Minerals Management Service, a branch of Interior Department, whose reputation is at stake now has been criticized for quite some time now for its handling the oil drilling industry. Neither Congress nor President Barrack Obama like somewhat too close relationship between oil companies and the agency, and they promised a reform of MMS. Apparently, the MMS failed at keeping an organized and transparent documentation and got too lazy or sure of itself that it even let the companies running the rigs to do their own inspections. "The thing I regret most is that, to my knowledge, MMS has not fixed the data management problem they have," said John Shultz who as a graduate student studied the MMS inspection program for his dissertation. "If you have the data you need, the analy! sis becomes fairly straightforward. Without the data, you're s! imply st uck with conjectures." Currently, the researchers are worried that the oil might enter the major current in the Gulf and thus get to the Florida Keys and further to the West coast.

related story (sgx17316): http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100516/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_...

by Zuzana Zelenakova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

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