Shares of BP were trading higher in London Wednesday morning, following a news report that the US government's investigation into the Macondo/Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico had spread the blame beyond the oil company.
At 1221 GMT, BP's shares were trading at 398.75 pence/share (about $6.29/share), up 4.5% from Tuesday's London close of 381.60 pence/share.
The Wall Street Journal reported overnight that the US probe of the disaster "points the finger at BP PLC, but also its contractors, for a litany of failures that led to the deadly well blowout and oil spill last year." The newspaper cited "a person who has seen a government report" as the source of the information on the findings.
The Wall Street Journal said that the final report by the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement was not expected to differ greatly from interim reports on the causes of the April 2010 disaster. The release of the final report has been delayed several times. The US agency was scheduled to release the final report later Wednesday.
But it said that in addition to blaming BP, the report will also blame the crew of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which was owned by Transocean, and Halliburton, which was in charge of the cementing operation on the well.
