The first gauntlet in what promises to be a war of finger-pointing was thrown Wednesday, when BP released an internal report on the factors that led to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April. Perhaps not surprisingly, BP found very little culpability was attributable to their operation.

The report, which was the result of a four-month investigation by BP and independent investigators, found a combination of factors were responsible for the explosion and eventual oil spill.

“The team did not identify any single action or inaction that caused this accident,” according to the report’s executive summary. “Rather, a complex and interlinked series of mechanical failures, human judgments, engineering design, operational implementation and team interfaces came together to allow the initiation and escalation of the accident.”

The report cites eight main issues leading to the incident; among them are the quality of the cement job that sealed the well into place, the misinterpretation of a test that would have indicated gas in the well, and the much-publicized failure of the blowout preventer, which should have sealed the well after an explosion. (For an excellent discussion of the well history and graphic representation of several of the issues, see the New Orleans Time Picayune.)

According to the report, BP is only responsible for one of the eight items—the misinterpreted test—but that responsibility was offset by the failure of contracted employees to note other warning signs that gas had entered the well.

The report was met with skepticism and disbelief by many, including BP contractors Transocean and Halliburton, who will shoulder the blame BP fails to carry. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., who is part of the congressional investigation of the spill, was incensed by the company’s lack of remorse.

"This report is not BP's mea culpa," he is quoted as saying in an Associated Press article. "Of their own eight key findings, they only explicitly take responsibility for half of one. BP is happy to slice up blame as long as they get the smallest piece."

Neither contractor seemed to prepared to take the portion of the blame BP allotted to them, with Transocean, which provided the rig, calling the report “self-serving” and pointing to what it called "BP's fatally flawed well design," according to the AP. Halliburton, which completed the cement work, also harpooned the report’s accuracy and said it completed work to standards set by BP.

"Contractors do not specify well design or make decisions regarding testing procedures as that responsibility lies with the well owner," the company stated in a press release.

BP’s report is far from the last word on the subject. According the Los Angeles Times, reports are still expected from the U.S. Coast Guard, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement, the president's National Commission, and the Justice Department, which is looking into whether BP violated federal safety regulations.

BP, however, holds that the report isn’t meant to be a legal argument or an attempt to shift blame. It’s simply the findings of an internal inquiry, meant to stave off future incidents.

"We were not about apportioning fault or blame," BP’s lead investigator Mark Bly told the Wall Street Journal. "We've really tried to understand what happened and to the extent possible, why."