Of the two major deepwater well designs available, BP routinely used the cheapest, which had fewer safety checks, employing the riskier well in 35 percent of its offshore rigs, a Wall Street Journal investigation shows. Competitors used that well type, called long string, far less often: Royal Dutch Shell only 8 percent of the time, Chevron 15 percent of the time, and BHP Billiton on only 4 percent of its wells. BP’s rivals have blasted the company for its breezy approach to safety. Meanwhile, BP CEO Tony Hayward was pulled from managing daily operations in the oil spill Friday due to his gaffe-prone handling of the crisis. Still, some tiny bit of good news came out of the Gulf Friday, as BP collected 25,000 barrels of oil, the most in a day so far. But questions persist about the rate of the spill, with latest estimates hovering between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels a day.
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