Key device in busted Gulf well got U.S. OK in just 90 minutes

MSNBC -

A request by BP to set an "unusually deep cement plug" on the Gulf oil well that subsequently exploded killing 11 people was approved by the then-Minerals Management Service in just 90 minutes, according to a presidential commission report on the disaster.

That decision was one of the nine technical and engineering calls that the commission says —  in a 48-page excerpt of its final report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press — increased the risk of a blowout.

The oil spill commission said a string of poor decisions led to technical problems that contributed to the deadly April 20 accident, which led to more than 200 million gallons of oil spewing from BP's well a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico.

"The blowout was not the product of a series of abberational decisions made by a rogue industry or government officials that could not have been anticipated or expected to occur again," the commission concluded.

"Rather, the root causes are systemic, and absent significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, might well recur," it added.

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