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11 January 2011
Last updated at 10:46 ET
A major US report into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has called for wide-ranging reforms of the oil industry to prevent a repeat of the disaster.
The report comes from a US presidential commission investigating the spill.
The panel said the US needed to expand drilling regulations as well as set up an independent drilling safety agency.
The April blast aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 people and caused one of the worst oil spills in history.
The Macondo well, about a mile under the sea's surface, eventually leaked millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf, damaging hundreds of miles of coastline before it was capped in July.
'Costs cut' "Our exhaustive investigation finds that none of the major aspects of offshore drilling safety - not the regulatory oversight, not the industry safety standards, not the spill response practices - kept pace with the push into deep water," said panel co-chairman William Reilly.
The commission recommends:
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The report comes from a US presidential commission investigating the spill.
The panel said the US needed to expand drilling regulations as well as set up an independent drilling safety agency.
The April blast aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 people and caused one of the worst oil spills in history.
The Macondo well, about a mile under the sea's surface, eventually leaked millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf, damaging hundreds of miles of coastline before it was capped in July.
'Costs cut' "Our exhaustive investigation finds that none of the major aspects of offshore drilling safety - not the regulatory oversight, not the industry safety standards, not the spill response practices - kept pace with the push into deep water," said panel co-chairman William Reilly.
The commission recommends:
- increasing budgets and training for the federal agency that regulates offshore drilling
- increasing the liability cap for damages when companies drill offshore
- dedicating 80% of fines and penalties from the BP spill to restoration of the Gulf
- lending more weight to scientific opinions in decisions about drilling
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