Panel finds BP didn't cut costs at Macondo

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- British energy company BP wasn't deliberately putting cost-saving initiatives ahead of safety, a U.S. commission probing the Gulf of Mexico oil spill found.

U.S. lawmakers are in the midst of a public hearing on the April 20 explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. A gas explosion killed 11 workers on the platform and led to the worst accidental offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Fred Bartlit, the head of the National Oil Spill Commission, said he didn't see evidence of BP putting costs before safety, the Financial Times reports.

"We have not seen a single instance where a human being made a conscious decision to favor dollars to safety," he was quoted as saying.

The panel found that "experienced men" on the rig misread well-integrity tests that could have been interpreted as a warning sign of a pending disaster.

Federal investigators examining the site of the oil spill suggested in August that a faulty cementing procedure lead in part to the failure of the Macondo well on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico.

BP executives added that there were no cost-cutting measures at the Macondo well.

The panel has until January to release its findings.