Costly, time-consuming test of cement linings in Deepwater Horizon rig was omitted, spokesman says

[maddezmom]

Source: NOLA.com

BP hired a top oilfield service company to test the strength of cement linings on the Deepwater Horizon's well, but sent the firm's workers home 11 hours before the rig exploded April 20 without performing a final check that a top cementing company executive called "the only test that can really determine the actual effectiveness" of the well's seal.

A spokesman for the testing firm, Schlumberger, said BP had a Schlumberger team and equipment for sending acoustic testing lines down the well "on standby" from April 18 to April 20. But BP never asked the Schlumberger crew to perform the acoustic test and sent its members back to Louisiana on a regularly scheduled helicopter flight at 11 a.m., Schlumberger spokesman Stephen T. Harris said.

At a few minutes before 10 p.m., a belch of natural gas shot out of the well, up a riser pipe to the rig above, igniting massive explosions, killing 11 crewmembers and sending millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf. The rig's owner, Transocean, blames failed cement seals, installed by Halliburton, for the disastrous blowout.


~snip~

Schlumberger's Harris said the contractor was ready to do any such wireline tests, but was never directed to do so. The team had finished doing tests on the subsea layers of earth being drilled five days earlier and hadn't done any work since, Harris said.

¬snip¬

BP spokesmen did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the decision to send Schlumberger home without conducting a cement bond log or on the cementing schematic Probert gave the Senate committee. And Halliburton didn't respond to questions about the accuracy of Probert's diagram.





Read more: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/costly_time-consuming_test_of.html

[Angry Dragon]

1. Murder charges

that is the only way to stop things like this happening. And not a country club prison either.

[sce56]

2. How about as part of the punishment a chaingang cleaning the shoreline!

Imagine the BP & Halliburton Execs mopping the oil off the shores of the gulf coast! Wish I had a picture to cover that, Swamp Rat get the Idea!

[aquart]

4. I'd relocate to be on that jury.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Turbineguy]

3. There were already over budget.

And they certainly are now.

[Kelvin Mace]

6. The version of this story circulating in NOLA is far worse

" BP contracted Schlumberger (SLB) to run the Cement Bond Log (CBL) test that was the final test on the plug that was skipped. The people testifying have been very coy about mentioning this, and you'll see why.

SLB is an extremely highly regarded (and incredibly expensive) service company. They place a high standard on safety and train their workers to shut down unsafe operations.

SLB gets out to the Deepwater Horizon to run the CBL, and they find the well still
kicking heavily, which it should not be that late in the operation. SLB orders the"company man" (BP's man on the scene that runs the operation) to dump kill fluid down the well and shut-in the well. The company man refuses. SLB in the very next sentence asks for a helo to take all SLB personel back to shore. The company man says there are no more helo's scheduled for the rest of the week (translation: you're here to do a job, now do it). SLB gets on the horn to shore, calls SLB's corporate HQ, and gets a helo flown out there at SLB's expense and takes all SLB personel to shore.

6 hours later, the platform explodes.

This story is WAY down in the comments on this article:

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6464

If true, this is negligent homicide.

[Usrename]

8. That's right.

Some folks were going to try and investigate this story:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8340018

[jtrockville]

14. "a regularly scheduled helicopter flight "

I find it odd that the Hammer's article specifies "a regularly scheduled helicopter flight" from the SLB spokesman, which contradicts theoildrum blog.

Frankly, I'm inclinded to believe the blogger. "Officials" have been lying to us every step of the way.

[Kelvin Mace]

24. You and me both

I don't believe a lie until it is officially denied. :)

[Nihil]

7. So, the "costly, time-consuming test of cement linings" were not required by the MMS ...

> According to internal BP and Transocean documents released to the public
> by a U.S. House committee, the rig crew made sure a plug placed in the
> bottom of the well was set properly and then conducted the positive and
> negative pressure tests.
> ...
> government regulators at the Minerals Management Service don't require
> a well owner like BP to order a cement bond log unless it feels uncertain
> about any of the earlier tests. It's not clear what the results of the
> positive and negative pressure tests were.

There was some doubt last week as to whether the negative pressure test had
produced a satisfactory result as well as uncertainty about whether
TransOcean/Halliburton had addressed the issue.

This leaves two questions (OK, two main questions):

1) Has there been any confirmation of the negative pressure test results yet?

2) Were BP were aware of them when they decided against the (otherwise optional)
cement bond log?

:shrug:

[maddezmom]

9. no one seems to be able to give a straight answer and needs further investigation

¬snip¬
The negative pressure testing by Transocean occurred just before well operators were sealing the exploratory well so a full production facility could be hooked up later.

Questions have been raised about a decision to change the customary order for plugging the well hole, effectively allowing drilling mud to be removed and displaced by seawater before a final cement plug was installed.

A ‘problematic' situation
Tim Probert, the chief health and safety officer for Halliburton, said the negative pressure tests would have dictated whether it was safe to install the final plug because displacing high-density drilling muds and fluids with lighter seawater would mean less weight to tamp down oil and gas.

“Had that not been a successful negative test, that would clearly be a situation that would be problematic,” Probert said.

Lamar McKay, BP America chairman, said the pressure test discrepancy “is one of the key things that the investigation is going to have to look at.”

Transocean CEO Steve Newman said he first learned of the pressure test results when they were revealed by lawmakers on Wednesday. But he noted that the pressure discrepancy “would lead to a conclusion that there was something happening in the well bore that shouldn't be happening.”

It would indicate potential problems with “the integrity of the casing and cement,” Newman added.

more|:http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7001846.html

[kpete]

10. Costly, time-consuming test of cement linings in Deepwater Horizon rig was omitted, spokesman says

Source: The Times-Picayune

Costly, time-consuming test of cement linings in Deepwater Horizon rig was omitted, spokesman says
By David Hammer, The Times-Picayune
May 19, 2010, 10:30PM

BP hired a top oilfield service company to test the strength of cement linings on the Deepwater Horizon's well, but sent the firm's workers home 11 hours before the rig exploded April 20 without performing a final check that a top cementing company executive called "the only test that can really determine the actual effectiveness" of the well's seal.

A spokesman for the testing firm, Schlumberger, said BP had a Schlumberger team and equipment for sending acoustic testing lines down the well "on standby" from April 18 to April 20. But BP never asked the Schlumberger crew to perform the acoustic test and sent its members back to Louisiana on a regularly scheduled helicopter flight at 11 a.m., Schlumberger spokesman Stephen T. Harris said.

At a few minutes before 10 p.m., a belch of natural gas shot out of the well, up a riser pipe to the rig above, igniting massive explosions, killing 11 crewmembers and sending millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf. The rig's owner, Transocean, blames failed cement seals, installed by Halliburton, for the disastrous blowout.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/costly_time-consuming_test_of.html

[havocmom]

11. Cost, time, trump human life, environment in corporate world

Time to take the bosses in for some education on real values

[havocmom]

12. Hmmm, more arguement for the find this OP posted about

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=8340018

Keep posted about this rather important 'little' detail. DU. It would seem to be a pretty damning piece of the story.

BP is goin down.

[havocmom]

13. blog that DUer PJPhreak labourously sifted through last weekend to get mention of this

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6464

PJPhreak said in his/her thread that there is a lot of blog stuff to go through to get to the posts about Schlumberger on, and then off the platform due to the reputable testing firm's observations that the drilling needed to shut down NOW. They removed THEIR crew, there for testing, because they knew a serious safety problem existed.

Gonna be hard for BP to walk this one back now

[highplainsdem]

15. K & R

[charlesg]

16. $4 Billion profit per quarter is not enough

Definitely not acceptable!

[sabra]

17. BP Smoking Gun? Oil Giant Skipped Critical Testing Hours Before Explosion

Source: HuffPost

New revelations about BP's operations on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on the day of the explosion are being described as the smoking gun that proves the oil giant's culpability in the disaster.

BP hired a reputable oilfield service company to test the strength of cement linings on the well, but then sent the company's workers home 11 hours before the explosion on April 20 -- "without performing a final check that a top cementing company executive called 'the only test that can really determine the actual effectiveness' of the well's seal," reports the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

A spokesman for the testing firm, Schlumberger, said BP had a Schlumberger team and equipment for sending acoustic testing lines down the well "on standby" from April 18 to April 20. But BP never asked the Schlumberger crew to perform the acoustic test and sent its members back to Louisiana on a regularly scheduled helicopter flight at 11 a.m., Schlumberger spokesman Stephen T. Harris said.


At a few minutes before 10 p.m., a belch of natural gas shot out of the well, up a riser pipe to the rig above, igniting massive explosions, killing 11 crewmembers and sending millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf. The rig's owner, Transocean, blames failed cement seals, installed by Halliburton, for the disastrous blowout.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/20/bp-smoking-gun-oil-giant_n_583590.html

[BrklynLiberal]

18. I hope this is enough to send them all to Gitmo and have this declared a threat

to National security and seize all the assets of BP, Halliburton and a few more corporations who put profits before lives.

[boston bean]

19. Congrats to the DU poster who brought this to our attention a week or so ago!

[truthisfreedom]

20. "installed by Halliburton." Thanks, dick.

You fucked 'murika again.

[jus_the_facts]

21. All this was covered in the 60 Minutes broadcast on Sunday... here's the link....

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6490378n&tag=api

[boston bean]

23. I don't think Schlumberger was mentioned....??????

[Tippy]

22. Why isn't anyone talking about this????

I caught this last week too, and waited for confirmation it took several days for Huffington to confirm it..That so called accident didn't happen they deliberately sent Schlumberger away.. murdered the 11 and did untold damage to the environment. Were they waiting for Republicans to stall things as in lower limits, on what the Gov would allow people to file law suits for. Makes no sense to me how the can send a tube down now to save some of their precious oil...

[PJPhreak]

25. My 2 Cents...

First A bit about me...

One of the things about me that drove my parents nuts was my constant drive to find out how things worked.
Toasters,Alarm Clocks,Bicycles,Go-Carts,Motorcycles,Cars,TV's Raidos whatever it was I HAD to know what made it tick.

So...

Late the week before last my brain started to hurt with all the numbers being bandied about as to how much of this toxic Crap was pouring into the GoM,then the thought occurred to me that if I wanted a good understanding of this I should go ask those who drill stupidly deep holes in the earth what they thought.

Boy was i in for some 'Edumactaion" I had no Idea how complex this was.

In the middle of all this I came across that rumor.

I think the OP at TOD asked a local (N.O.La.)Reporter about this before he posted this at TOD so that is where I think the MSM is picking up on this story.

I hate Big Oil,Have since 1974 when I was in the Tenth Grade...Anyone remember Odd/Even Plates and a $2.00 maximum purchase? That was in Oct '73.

Exxon made 540% more Profit the last Quarter of '73 than they did in the last Quarter of '72

540% during (And On) the worst energy crisis up to that point in US History

The Benjamins,Its all about the Benjamins.

Edit To Add: as Per Citizens United "Corporations are Persons" basically,Am I correct?

Well I am also a "Person"

And IF I kill 11 people because I wasn't using safe procedures at my job (Truck Driver) like doing 80 in a 45 mph Zone,am I not responsible Civilly (Fines) but Criminally Also? (Jail or Prison Time?)

And these MotherF----Rs are not doing a Perp Walk Yet? WTF?