BP report recommends better staff training
The team behind BP's internal investigation into the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster laid out 25 recommendations to prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future.
BP said the recommendations were for its own use, but hoped they would also be adopted by its contractors, as well as the wider oil industry.
Among the proposals were five suggested improvements in staff training, following a series of human errors that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
The report recommends BP develops an "advanced deepwater well control training programme", which would require mandatory attendance by all BP and contracted staff involved in deepwater operations.
A separate programme for staff in leadership roles is also recommended, which would involve regularly testing employees' knowledge on deepwater drilling procedures.
The guidance also tackles engineering procedures within the organisation, including a review of pressure testing in the well after staff misread readings which would have revealed the gas and oil leak before it ignited.
A further seven recommendations centred on how to operate and maintain the blow-out preventer - the valve which failed to shut off the Deepwater Horizon well following the explosion.
But the recommendations also targeted contractors used by BP - such as rig operator Transocean and cement provider Halliburton, who were partly blamed for the catastrophic event in today's report.
An immediate review of the quality of services provided by all cement providers, to ensure they comply with industry standards, should be conducted, it said.
This comes after BP alleged that a bad cement job at the bottom of the well failed to contain gas and oil in the reservoir - the initial failure which led to the disaster.
Incoming chief executive Bob Dudley said all the recommendations had been accepted and the firm was examining how best to implement them across its drilling operations worldwide.
He said: "We will invest whatever it takes to achieve that. It will be incumbent on everyone at BP to embrace and implement the changes necessary to ensure that a tragedy like this can never happen again."
