NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The company at the center of the Gulf oil spill wants access to a key piece of evidence in the federal investigation so it can do additional testing it says a government contractor has refused to do.
BP says in court papers filed Tuesday that further testing of the failed blowout preventer will help determine why it didn't work as intended during the April 20 rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana. A federal judge did not immediately rule.
BP's request follows the U.S. Chemical Safety Board's objection to the government's decision to halt testing of the blowout preventer last Friday.
The board says there may have been a fundamental safety design problem with the pods that controlled the massive device, and it asked that more testing be done to confirm that.