Minerals Management Service (MMS) inspectors working in the Gulf of Mexico are being stretched to an ever-greater level, a report claims.

According to the Washington Post, inspectors working in the Gulf are being stretched further as their numbers have not increased at the same rate as the number of rigs and structures in the Gulf.

The paper claims that some lawmakers believe the training offered to MMS inspectors is inadequate given the scale of the job they have to carry out and the risks associated with technical failures.

A letter sent by the natural resources committee chairman Nick Rahall to interior secretary Ken Salazar earlier this week asked for details of inspectors' training and qualifications, the paper reports, claiming that it said there is a need to see "professional, highly trained inspectors that are not just pushing paper".

Currently there are 62 inspectors working in the Gulf of Mexico, seven more than were present in 1985, the newspaper states.

A blog piece on the Economist website this week suggested there is a need for an aggressive re-inspection policy to be adopted in the Gulf of Mexico to ensure a similar incident to Deepwater Horizon does not happen again.

Oil and Gas Directory: Training and Development