Oil Rig Missed Inspections Before Explosion

(June 12) -- The BP rig that sparked America's biggest oil spill in history missed 16 required inspections in the years leading up to the deadly April explosion that killed 11 workers and sent crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

That's according to newly released government inspection reports that show the Deepwater Horizon rig was only surveyed six times in 2008, even though the government requires drilling rigs to be inspected every month. In total, it missed 16 checks since January 2005.

It's unclear whether the lapse is the fault of federal authorities or BP itself. An Interior Department official told CBS News that a rig sometimes misses inspection if it's being dragged from one location to another, or if there are delays because of the weather.

The inspections that did occur found no problems on the rig, and the most recent safety violation was recorded as far back as 2007. One report dated three weeks before the April blast, excerpted by the Los Angeles Times, noted that the blowout preventer was functioning properly, without any mention of problems with surges of natural gas flowing up the drill column – the glitch that experts believe led to the disastrous April 20th explosion.

"It appears that the Deepwater Horizon experienced dangerous gas 'kicks' before the April 20 disaster," David Pettit, a senior attorney and drilling expert for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told the LA Times. "It is hard to understand why MMS did not learn about this potentially deadly problem" before the explosion.

MMS refers to the federal Minerals Management Service, which is tasked with inspecting offshore oil rigs. The head of the agency, Elizabeth Birnbaum, resigned last month over the oil spill.

President Barack Obama acknowledged on Friday that the government could have done more to regulate oil companies like BP, but said it's also a tough political issue on Capitol Hill.

"I think it's fair to say, if six months ago, before this spill had happened, I had gone up to Congress and I had said, 'We need to crack down a lot harder on oil companies and we need to spend more money on technology to respond in case of a catastrophic spill,' there are folks up there, who will not be named, who would have said, 'This is classic, big-government over-regulation and wasteful spending,'" Obama said in an interview with Politico.

Obama is planning to visit the Gulf for a fourth time this coming week. Today he plans to speak by telephone with British Prime Minister David Cameron, to discuss the environmental catastrophe that continues to unfold along America's coastline. There's growing animosity among Gulf coast residents for BP, a British company that's the world's third-largest oil firm and a pillar of the British economy.

In recent weeks, Obama has said he would fire BP's CEO if the decision were up to him, and also criticized the company for spending money on public relations, rather than devoting all its profits to the oil cleanup.

One thing BP has done is promise to donate some of its proceeds to help restore and protect wildlife along the Gulf Coast. The company announced earlier this week that it would donate its share of profits from any oil it siphons off the blown-out well and introduces back into the oil supply.

According to that method, the very oil that's been spewing out into the Gulf could soon end up at local gas stations, with profits funding the environmental cleanup. BP hasn't released details on how the plan would work or how much money it would generate.

Experts estimate that between 40 and 109 million gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf since April 20th. Some four million gallons have been siphoned off the ruptured well using tubes and caps, and another 18 million gallons have been skimmed off the water's surface, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen told The Associated Press on Friday.