BP, RIG, HAL, CAM: Who’s to Blame? Latest Memo Unclear

Neither BP (BP) nor Transocean (RIG) nor Halliburton (HAL) nor Cameron Internaitonal (CAM) is backing down in the tussle is over who was responsible for the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

The papers this morning were filled with articles about BP’s having sent an update to Congress on its findings in the incident, noting that mistakes were made before the explosion.

Yet with no clear sign as to who might be to blame for those mistakes, all four stocks are up this morning, with BP rising 3 cents to $42.59, Transocean, the operator of the rig, up 41 cents, or 0.7%, at $57.60, Halliburton, a contractor on the rig, up 44 cents, or 1.7%, at $26.06, and Cameron, the maker of the blowout preventer on the rig, a supposed fail-safe device, up $1.08, or 3%, at $36.08.

One could say based on those numbers that BP is being held more responsible than others, which is of course the contention of RIG and HAL and CAM.

BP’s memo to Congress yesterday, which was summarized by Reps. Heny Waxman (Dem., California) and Joe Barton (Republican, Texas), indicates that two hours before the explosion, testing of the well indicated a possible “influx” in the well and various procedures happened with the so-called “kill line” aboard the rig.

“BPís investigator indicated that a ìfundamental mistakeî may have been made here because this was an ìindicator of a very large abnormality,” the Congressmen write.

The report from BP, however, doesn’t identify which company’s people were saying what should be done at each point in the crucial hours before the explosion.

In the Wall Street Journal piece on the memo, author Stephen Power notes that Transocean has said the well was like a house built to the specification of BP, the house’s owner. Meaning, BP’s responsible. Halliburton representatives are quoted by Power as saying much the same.

Meantime, the New York Times’s Clifford Kraus writes that BP CEO Tony Heyward said earlier today he’ll make a decision later today whether or not to proceed with the so-called top kill effort to plug the leak, which the company has said presents difficulties given that it has not been tried before at the depth of the well.