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LONDON: BP will publish an eagerly awaited report on the causes of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on Wednesday, the company announced.
The probe by the oil giant's head of safety and operations, Mark Bly, is viewed as key to how BP defends itself against legal proceedings involving the spill, which followed an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April.
"The Deepwater Horizon accident investigation report prepared by BP's internal investigation team on the causes of the Gulf of Mexico tragedy is expected to be published" at noon (1100 GMT), BP said Tuesday.
The explosion on April 20 killed 11 workers and caused the worst spill in US history, with an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil pumped into the Gulf.
The Macondo well has now been secured but the US government is conducting what could be a criminal investigation into the incident.
As well as BP's actions, it is also looking into contractors including Transocean, which leased the Deepwater Horizon rig off the Louisiana coast, and Halliburton, which cemented the well.
BP has already spent US$8 billion trying to contain the disaster, and has forecast that it will eventually cost the group more than US$32.2 billion, after clean-up costs and compensation are taken into account.
US lawmakers have accused the oil giant of sacrificing safety to improve its profit margin, but chief executive Tony Hayward denied this during a hostile grilling in Congress in June.
"There is nothing I have seen so far that suggests that anyone put costs ahead of safety. If there are, then we'll take action," he said.
Hayward subsequently announced he was quitting the top job. - AFP/fa
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