Panel member: Blowout preventer may hold key to oil spill

Accurate conclusions about what caused the blowout of BP's oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and the massive spill that followed will have to wait for a key piece of equipment to be raised from the seafloor and analyzed, a member of a federal investigative panel said yesterday.

Even then it could be a guessing game, said Wayne R. Andersen, a retired federal judge and the only nongovernment member of the panel.

"I'd say the key thing to this story is coming soon as the blowout preventer comes up," Andersen told The Associated Press.

"Hopefully, we won't have to speculate after that is inspected, but we might. I am waiting suspensefully to see what the engineers say." He also said panel members have not been provided a copy of BP's internal investigation, which is continuing, nor have results of other probes been released.

Everyone is going to have to wait a few more days for the blowout preventer to be pulled up from the seabed, however. High seas forced BP PLC yesterday to delay operations for up to three days.

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man on the spill response, told reporters in a conference call that waves were 6 to 8 feet tall and crews were worried about the potential risk of suspending hulking pieces of equipment from a crane underwater while the waves were rocking.

He said it could be as late as Thursday before engineers begin to remove the temporary cap that stopped more oil from flowing into the sea in mid-July and the failed blowout preventer, which is a key piece of evidence in the investigations.