Report: BP lawyers allowed to ‘review’ accident study

So how independent was that BP report on the causes of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill?

BP said its internal report issued Wednesday — which accepts some blame but largely points fingers at BP’s contractors — was produced by an independent team of investigators.

But The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday afternoon that company attorneys were allowed to review the report before it was published.

“The disclosure raises questions about the extent of the independence of BP's report, which was released on Wednesday and assigned much of the blame for the accident to BP's contractors, Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton Co.,” their piece states.

The Journal notes the stakes are high for BP, which is facing potentially massive fines and has already been hit with numerous lawsuits.

BP’s report said the investigation headed by Mark Bly, the company’s head of safety and operations, “was conducted independently from BP teams managing the ongoing accident response and regular operations.”

The Journal quotes a BP spokesman saying the BP lawyers involved were “walled off from the rest of the company.”