Quote Originally Posted by Amazulu View Post
Who said "absolve"? It was America who vilified BP to the hilt with their anti "British" rhetoric without including the American partners.
That was your perception, from accross the pond. No one here vilified BP as anything but an oil company. There's nothing particularly "British" about them, other than the old name. I can see now where your sensitivity on this matter is coming from, though. Don't worry, Americans don't think any less of Britain because of this oil spill. :rolleyes:

This bore was an exploratory hole being removed - so it had been in existance for some time without an issue. It was Haliburtons job to concrete the base to seal it but they used concrete that was not of the stipulated grade. I bet you will say BP should be looking over their shoulder but when you contract a "reputable " company to concrete your driveway stipulating a 4:2:1 mix - do you send some off for crush testing? No - you rely on your "reputable" company to do the job correctly.
Personally, I wouldn't trust Haliburton to pave my sidewalk. I'm not saying that Haliburton holds absolutely NO responsibility - I'm sure the did fuck this up, and royally. Knowing Haliburton, they probably cut every corner they could, in order to squeeze every penny they could out of this contract. But if Haliburton fucked up, it is ultimately BP's responsiblity to make sure that Haliburton pays for their mistake. This is what BP agreed to contractually.

If you hire a contractor to build you a house, and the plumber that he hires does a terrible job, it is up to the contractor to fix the mess. Yes, the plumber did a bad job... but the contractor is the one in charge of the whole project.