Senate Starts Hearings on Oil Spill Today

Today, the three oil firms at the center of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are in front of US Senate hearings.

Lamar McKay, president of BP America Inc, Steven Newman, president of the drilling company Transocean Ltd and Tim Probert, a senior executive at Halliburton Co, will face intense questioning before two Senate committees.

BP is expected to tell the Senate that the spill was due to the failure of Transocean’s safety equipment designed to close off the flow of oil in case of sudden pressure change, according to US media reports.

In turn, Transocean’s prepared testimony for the hearings at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Environment and Public Works Committee pins the explosion on the failure of Halliburton's cementing work to plug the underwater well.