NEW ORLEANS — Now that BP appears to have vanquished its ruptured well, authorities are turning their attention to gathering evidence from what could amount to a crime scene at the bottom of the sea.
The wreckage — including the failed blowout preventer and the blackened, twisted remnants of the drilling platform — might be Exhibit A in the effort to establish who is responsible for the biggest peacetime oil spill in history.
Hundreds of investigators can’t wait to get their hands on evidence. The FBI is conducting a criminal investigation, the Coast Guard is seeking the cause of the blast, and lawyers are pursuing millions of dollars in damages for the families of the 11 workers killed, the dozens injured and the thousands whose livelihoods have been damaged.
“The items at the bottom of the sea are a big deal for everybody,” said Stephen Herman, a New Orleans lawyer for injured rig workers and others.
BP and Transocean, which owned the oil platform, could face heavy penalties if found to be at fault. They have said they will raise some of the wreckage if it can be done without doing more damage to the oil well. That would give the two companies responsibility for gathering up the very evidence that could be used against them.
But the federal government has said it doesn’t have the know-how and the deep-sea equipment that the drilling industry has. And it said the operation will be closely supervised by the Coast Guard.
BP plugged up the top of the blown-out well this week with mud and then sealed it with cement. BP senior vice president Kent Wells said crews plan to resume drilling Sunday night on a relief well that will be used to inject mud and cement just above the source of the oil, thereby sealing off the well from the bottom too.
In other developments Friday, BP said it might drill again someday into the same undersea reservoir of oil, which is still thought to hold nearly $4 billion worth of crude. That prospect is unlikely to sit well with Gulf Coast residents furious at the oil giant.
“There’s lots of oil and gas here,” said chief operating officer Doug Suttles. “We’re going to have to think about what to do with that at some point.”
