US offshore regulators expect to send “notices of violation”, which would precede civil fines, as early next week to oil giant BP, driller Transocean and oil field service firm Halliburton after an investigation into last year’s Macondo spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
A district office of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) is developing the proposed notices, director Michael Bromwich said yesterday.
A joint investigation by BOEMRE and the US Coast Guard found that Macondo operator BP violated seven US regulations before the well blowout on April 20 last year, causing the death of 11 workers. Transocean, the operator of the well’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, and cement contractor Halliburton were each found to have violated three rules.
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