By Tom Bergin and Daniel Fineren
LONDON (Reuters) - UK safety regulators criticized BP <:BP.LO:>Plc's safety training procedures in the North Sea just months before a blown-out BP well in the Gulf of Mexico caused America's worst ever oil spill.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the UK government body monitoring compliance with companies' approved emergency plans, also cited BP for failing to adequately conduct oil spill exercises.
The UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said in a letter to BP that there was "evidence of a culture among your contractors, Seawell (up to senior levels of management), of working outside of procedures, permit or permit conditions."
The publication of the criticism comes as BP's outgoing chief executive, Tony Hayward, prepares to appear before a UK parliamentary committee later on Wednesday to discuss North Sea safety.
BP's shares traded down 1.6 percent at 408.5 pence at 1013 GMT, lagging a 0.8 percent drop in the STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index.
BP's culture toward safety has been criticized heavily by politicians in the United States following the Macondo well disaster.
The company said it had addressed DECC's concerns and was now fully compliant with the relevant regulations.
With respect to the HSE criticism of its culture toward correct permitting of work on the Clair platform, BP said: "The letter from the HSE last year relates to comments made by a contractor which the safety representatives on the platform strongly felt did not reflect the reality of the platform's safety culture and practices."
"Following further engagement with the HSE the matter was closed," BP added.
Stavanger-based Seawell's chairman Joergen Rasmussen said he was surprised by the HSE comments.
"We have not heard about it before. We worked for BP so if they had received a letter like this that mentioned us we would have heard. This only seems strange, I cannot understand it," he said.
In one letter to BP, part of a batch released following a Freedom of Information Act request by two UK newspapers, the HSE also criticized BP's procedures for investigating safety incidents, and from learning from investigations.
BP last week published its own probe into the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico and accused its drilling contractor, Transocean, of inadequate adherence to procedures.
BP and other oil companies have previously admitted they were not prepared to deal with a blow out in deep water.
When Transocean's North Sea chief appeared before the parliamentary committee last week, he was also grilled about leaked criticism from the UK's safety regulator.
(Additional reporting by Richard Solem in Oslo; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)
