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of rig time and approximately $2.2 million. As discussed below, this cost‐
saving decision may have led to further complications encountered during the
temporary abandonment procedures that were underway when the blowout
occurred.

C. Personnel Changes and Conflicts

During the drilling of the Macondo well, BP experienced a number of
personnel issues related both to a recent reorganization of operational functions
and personnel and to personal conflicts among employees with significant
responsibilities for drilling operations at Macondo.

In April 2010, BP began to implement a reorganization that involved
multiple personnel changes among those with responsibilities for operations at
Macondo. The reorganization, among other things: (1) eliminated the wells
director position; (2) changed the reporting responsibilities of the wells team
leader; and (3) moved an operations engineer under the direct supervision of the
drilling engineer team lead. At the time of the blowout, nine BP employees with
responsibilities for drilling operations at the Macondo well had been in their
177
current positions for less than six months.

BP witnesses testified that the reorganization did not affect their roles or
responsibilities. Information from contemporaneous documents and witness
interviews, however, tell a different story. From February through April 2010, a
number of different individuals with responsibility for the Macondo drilling
operations expressed concerns about the reorganization in general and, in
particular, about John Guide’s role in light of the reorganization. Guide had
previously been at the same level as David Sims, BP drilling and completions
operations manager, but after the reorganization he reported to Sims.

Two of Guide’s colleagues expressed concerns about his reaction to the
reorganization. According to interview notes from BP’s investigation, Gregg
Walz, a BP drilling engineer team leader, stated that Guide “put Ops first and
was concerned about distractions associated with the functional
178
reorganization.” Jon Sprague, BP drilling engineering manager for the Gulf of

176 BP‐HZN‐MBI00097490.
177 The vice president of drilling and completions; wells manager; drilling engineering manager;
drilling and completions operations manager; drilling engineer team lead; drilling engineer; two
well site leaders at the Deepwater Horizon; and the future well site leader at the Deepwater Horizon.
178 BP‐HZN‐BLY00061325.

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