BP Spill Panel Is Probing Rig Command Four Months After Blast
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More than four months after the Gulf of Mexico rig explosion that killed 11 men and triggered a record oil spill, a U.S. investigative panel is still trying to find out who held ultimate authority aboard the vessel.
Command of the Deepwater Horizon sometimes alternated between the ship’s captain and a drilling supervisor, Neil Cramond, a BP Plc executive who oversees the seaworthiness of rigs drilling wells for the company in the Gulf of Mexico, testified yesterday at a hearing in Houston. Transocean Ltd. owned the rig, which was leased to London-based BP.