WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- U.S. lawmakers grilling oil executives on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in April focused on the operations that may have led up to the disaster.
Representatives from BP, Transocean and Halliburton faced a U.S. Senate panel investigating the April sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil continues to gush from the site of the sunken rig, threatening the southern coast of the United States.
Lawmakers asked about the cementing process of a well about a mile below the sea surface. The Wall Street Journal reported that officials postponed the installation of a cement plug that usually prevents oil and natural gas from running to the surface.
A gas explosion is the likely cause of the explosion that eventually sunk Deepwater Horizon.
Halliburton Chief Executive Officer Tim Probert stammered on specifics on the cementing process but eventually expressed confidence that his workers were following the orders of BP, the operator at the rig.
Lawmakers expressed frustration with the finger pointing, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, saying there was "plenty of time" to assign blame.
BP and a litany of U.S. federal agents, meanwhile, are busy trying to stop the oil leak from a subsurface well after a four-story containment dome failed during the weekend.
