Tony Heyward to be questioned by Senate

Tony Heyward will go on live TV

Vehement feeling has been continually rising in the 56 days since crude oil began pumping into the Gulf of Mexico. Some has been directed toward President Obama and his administration for not taking a stranglehold on the spiralling crisis, but the bulk of the disdain - from the government and those directly affected - is being directly at BP, laying the blame squarely on their shoulders.

Beleaguered BP SEO Tony Heyward had his knuckles wrapped from interior secretary Ken Salazar last month, and will now face even more hostile questions broadcast on live television from Senators when he is questioned about the unraveling disaster.

On Thursday, Heyward will face a special hearing, where he'll give evidence under oath about the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig and its consequent sinking. However a spokeswoman for the Committee on Energy and Commerce said the senators "can ask whatever questions they want".

Speaking on live television could prove a challenge for Heyward, who hasn't exactly endeared himself to the American public with his comments over the last few months. As a result Heyward has received special media coaching for his appearance on television in an effort to avoid recent faux pas. Recently Heyward claimed the Gulf of Mexico wouldn't be affected by the spill because of its size, and last week hoped the leak would be stemmed because he "wanted his life back." 

Essentially, Heyward will be questioned because of perceived ineptitude on the part of BP's safety measures on the Deepwater Horizon rig, after a letter was sent to BP five days before the 20 April explosion, contending that BP was warned by its own drilling engineer that the spewing well in question was a "nightmare well". Yet the firm went on to make five crucial decisions that the committee alleges put profit before safety.

The five accusations being fired at BP will be:

• BP adopted a cheap design of the well, choosing a single casing instead of a more sophisticated design. "The decision appears to have been made to save time and reduce costs," the letter says.

• BP went with the cheapest option of six centralizers, which hold the casing in the center of the borehole. Rig contractors Helliburton advised BP to use 21 after warning that the well had a "SEVERE gas flow problem."

• BP didn't carry out an acoustic test designed - which would take 12 hours and cost $128,000 - to measure the efficacy of the cementing of the well to block off gas flows, which caused an engineer giving evidence to the committee to say it was "unheard of" not to perform the test and slammed the decision as being "horribly negligent".

• BP failed to check how well the new well system worked by neglecting to circle drilling mud from the well bottom to the surface.

• BP failed to install a critical piece of equipment that locks the wellhead and the casing at the level of the sea floor.

President Obama won't help BP's popularity when he addresses America from the Oval Office about the crisis, where he is expected to hold BP solely to blame for the incident. During the same speech Obama is also expected to outline plans to force the firm to set up an independently monitored multi-billion dollar fund to compensate victims of the spill.

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