A key government report spreads the blame for the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, citing a bad cement job and poor management decisions by BP and its subcontractors.
The finding by the agency that regulates offshore drilling will likely strengthen the British energy giant's legal case for spreading the massive costs of the spill with Halliburton, which performed the cement job, and rig owner Transocean.
The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, 2010, killing 11 workers.
Some 4.9 million barrels of oil gushed from three months from the runaway underwater well, causing widespread environmental damage in the Gulf of Mexico, before the leak was capped in July 2010.
The report was written by the US Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), formerly the Minerals Management Service.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2011
