The recent case of London-based BP Plc in the Gulf of Mexico dubbed as the “BP Oil Leak” has now become a main consideration for the future of offshore drilling worlwide. Initial findings of the oil leak suggests that there seems to be a negligence on the part of BP Plc which have lead to the disaster last April 20, 2010.

Based on the initial investigation conducted by the United States Coast Guard and the Minerals Management services the following had been the initial findings of what may have caused the incident:

First, it was found out that there was a leak in the hydraulic system that provides power to the shear rams;

Second, there are unexpected modifications in the BOP which includes the connection of the underwater control pannel to a test ram rather than the bore ram, the huge discrepancy of the structural plan to the actual structure constructed;

Third, the BOP shear rams lack the power to cut through joints in the well pipe and the success rate of the BOP is expected to be at only 90% of the drill pipe; and

Fourth, the emergency control mechanism of the platform had severely failed and the system may not be as effective as it should have been. One of the proof to this is that one of the so called “dead man’s” switch has a busted battery.

Besides these initial observations it had been revealed as well that there had already been about 39 eplosions prior to this incident during the period from first five months of 2009. The coast guard had also acknowledge at east 18 smalkl scale BP Oil leak from 2009 to 2010.

In order to speed up investigation and to determine the root causes of the disaster so that disasters like this will be prevented in the future, President Barack Obama has ordered an independent investigation last May 11. The investigation will be headed by the National Academy of Engineering and will conduct an independent technical investigation on the BP Oil Lek disaster.

As for the current situation of the BP Oil Leak, BP Plc had decided to have a new approach to the catastrophic and life threatening oil leak. BP had deployed a mile-long siphon tube through undersea robots. The siphoning-tube will be brought down to the leaking well and BP is hoping to capture about a fifth of the oil leaking from it.

BP officials says that the tube will help contain the flow but it will not stop the flow of oil out of the well.

BP Chief Executive Tony Howard says they feel that they have turned the tide in their favor and the BP Oil leak will be contained in the coming days. He also added that in the last 48 hours they have achieved some good progress.

A study released by the Center for Public Integrity showed two BP-owned U.S. refineries accounted for 97 percent of all flagrant safety violations found in the refining industry by government inspectors over the past three years.

The BP Oil leak had placed the London-based company into full scrutiny as various environmental, safety and state regulations had been violated by the company. Jordan Barab the deputy assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health says the BP has a serious, systematic safety problem.

Meanwhile in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid has rejected a proposed cap of $10 billion for oil companies to cover damage from oil spills. Reid says this is inadequate considering its possible long term effect on the environment.

The current BP Oil leak is closing in damage and danger to the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska which so far has been the worst U.S. ecological disaster.

The incident will also certainly hold the proposal to increase offshore mining permits in the United States and will put a strict review on the ecological viability of it. Before this incident there were lobbying to allow increased offshore drilling in the United State and they are indeed making progress, however the BP Oil leak puts them on the retreat.