BP rig worker reported oil leak weeks before Deepwater Horizon disaster

June 21, 2010 — A rig worker has claimed that he told both BP and the rig operator of a problem with a piece of equipment blamed by many for causing the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He says he gave the warning weeks before the explosion at the rig, and says the problem was not fixed at the time. Tyrone Benton says that he spotted a leak on the rig's Blowout Preventer (BOP), the device that is meant to shut the well down if there is an accident. He told the BBC's Panorama programme that both BP and Transocean, who owned the rig, were informed of the leak, and the faulty part -- a control pod -- was switched off rather than being repaired. This comes as BP announced that the 2 relief wells that are being drilled to stop the oil spill will not be completed until August.

BP accused of downplaying amount of gushing oil

AlJazeeraEnglish — June 20, 2010 — A US congressman has accused BP of playing down its concerns about the volume of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

Representative Ed Markey, the chairman of a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, released an undated, internal BP document, which estimates a worst-case scenario oil flow of 100,000 barrels (15.9 million litres) of oil per day.

"Right from the beginning, BP was either lying or grossly incompetent," Markey told NBC's Meet the Press programme.

"First they said it was only 1,000 barrels, then they said it was 5,000 barrels."

The current upper limit of the US government's estimate is 60,000 barrels per day.

Toby Odone, a spokesman for the British-based energy giant, said the worst-case estimate applied only to a situation in which a key piece of equipment called a blowout preventer was removed.

"Since there are no plans to remove the blowout preventer, the number is irrelevant," he said.

Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan reports.

Outrage as BP CEO Spotted at Yacht Race

Outrage as BP CEO Spotted at Yacht Race
June 20, 2010 (2:45)
BP CEO TOny Hayward is again the subject of intense criticism after the revelation he attended a yacht race 4,500 miles away from the Gulf of Mexico.