The Deepwater Horizon disaster followed other failures including a leak from a pipeline in Alaska in 2006 and the Texas City refinery explosion in 2005, which killed 15 people in one of the US's worst industrial accidents of recent years.

CNN: BP claims it now leads the way on safety

Showing that there are no doubts about the importance of deepwater drilling in the oil and gas industry, General Electric announced a plan to purchase 100% of subsea pipeline manufacturer Wellstream Holdings .

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