Teribus, if the sobriquet "British Petroleum" were not the operative concept here, then tell me why Richard Bridge went up in flames in the opening post? And you are weighing in so heavily?

As I have said a couple of times now, it makes no difference if the company is British, Swahili, or from Arcturus 12, they are ultimately responsible for what happened. If BP had not formerly been called "British Petroleum," then why are you folks having such a hissy-fit and trying to pin the blame on anybody but BP?

Also, you are ignoring (trying to minimize) salient facts here. The Deepwater Horizon crew was reluctantly (due to safety concerns) following BP management's order to speed up the drilling. The blowout would probably not have happened in the first place had it not been for BP's insistence on ignoring safety margins. A blow-out preventer (functional or non-functional) is hardly necessary if there is no blowout in the first place.

Don Firth