BP Emails: 'Who Cares? It's Done'

BP engineers were well aware of all the risks they were taking with the Deepwater Horizon well, but essentially chose to ignore them because they were under pressure to finish the job quickly, emails obtained by Congress reveal. “We have flipped design parameters around to the point I got nervous,” wrote one engineer, though he later revised his opinion and wrote, “All looks fine.”

In one case, Halliburton recommended BP install 21 centralizer mechanisms to ensure the casing ran straight into the well, but BP decided to use only six, ABC News reports. Four days before the rig exploded, a BP official noted the danger inherent in that. “But who cares, it’s done, end of story,” he concluded. “Will probably be fine, and we’ll get a good cement job.” Yeah. About that cement job… (More oil rig stories.)