WASHINGTON — Oil drilling industry experts told Congress on Wednesday that human error and equipment failure were the lethal combination that led to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

Greg McCormack, director of the Petroleum Extension Service at the University of Texas at Austin, said a lack of proper training contributed to the disaster. Several people involved were simply inexperienced, he said.

The BP representative in charge of operations on the platform had little deep- water experience, McCormack said, having worked mostly with land-based rigs. He also said the Minerals Management Service inspector who checked the rig before the explosion had been in that position only four months; before that, he had been on a production platform.

McCormack told a House energy subcommittee: "All blowouts can be prevented."

"There are signs ahead of time," he said. "The problem is, when you're drilling this deep, the time you have to respond is short."

Although McCormack and the other witnesses indicated they viewed the explosion as an anomaly, they told the committee current safety regulations and equipment failed to anticipate and prevent all possible blowout scenarios.

"You don't want to get to the blowout preventer," said Erik Milito, group director of upstream and industry operations for the American Petroleum Institute.

chelsea@hearstdc.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7077217.html