NEW ORLEANS (AP) — BP’s first witness at a trial over the deadly Deepwater Horizon disaster says the company safely drilled its Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico before an April 2010 blowout triggered the nation’s worst offshore oil spill.

Retired LSU petroleum engineering professor Adam “Ted” Bourgoyne Jr. is an expert in drilling operations. He testified Monday that crew members and BP supervisors on the rig followed “normal industry practices” before encountering problems as they tried to plug the well.