This can't be ruled out, of course, today's pathologically competitive business environment means that no matter how profitable your firm is, it's never enough. Like the Edward G. Robinson gangster character in "Key Largo", they always want more.

On the other hand, I suspect this does not necessarily lead to criminal activity. Economic pressures can also lead to plain old incompetence, taking chances, cutting corners, penny-pinching, and other symptoms of plain old greed. Oil companies are not run by geologists or engineers, after all, they're run by business majors.

Why one of the largest and most successful firms in one of the most lucrative businesses in the world, during a time of record profits and revenue, risk it all by trying to save a little on maintenance is probably traceable to a handful of men in an office somewhere trying to "improve efficiency" and "streamline operations". This episode will cost BP dearly, both on the bottom line and in public image, but the true villains with the golden parachutes will prosper, while some line manager somewhere trying to do more and more with less and less will find his career trashed.