Deepwater Horizon hearing set for Oct. 13

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- A hearing before a House natural resources committee will provide firsthand accounts of last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill, an official said.

An oversight hearing at the House Natural Resource Committee was postponed last week to Oct. 13. U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., chairman of the committee, said the delay was because U.S. President Barack Obama refused to let members of the investigative team from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement and U.S. Coast Guard testify.

Hastings, in a statement prior to the scheduled hearing, said top officials from a joint investigation team confirmed to him that they would testify.

"This hearing provides an opportunity to hear directly from the investigators about their on-the-ground work and findings," he said.

An investigation by the BOEMRE and the Coast Guard blamed the accident on BP, Transocean and Halliburton for seven alleged regulatory violations.

"The failure of the cement barrier allowed hydrocarbons to flow up the wellbore, through the riser and onto the rig, resulting in the blowout," the report said.

BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig caught fire and sank in April in the Gulf of Mexico. The disaster killed 11 rig workers and resulted in one of the worst oil spills in history.