AP Exclusive: Witness says BP took 'shortcuts'

[Dr.Phool]

Source: AP via St. Pete Times

May 26, 11:24 AM EDT

AP Exclusive: Witness says BP took 'shortcuts'

By GREG BLUESTEIN and MIKE BAKER
Associated Press Writer


COVINGTON, La. (AP) -- Senior managers complained oil giant BP was "taking shortcuts" by replacing heavy drilling fluid with saltwater in the well that blew out, triggering the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to witness statements obtained by The Associated Press.

Truitt Crawford, a roustabout for drilling rig owner Transocean Ltd., told Coast Guard investigators about the complaints. The seawater, which would have provided less weight to contain surging pressure from the ocean depths, was being used to prepare for dropping a final blob of cement into the well.

"I overheard upper management talking saying that BP was taking shortcuts by displacing the well with saltwater instead of mud without sealing the well with cement plugs, this is why it blew out," Crawford said in his statement.

A spokesman for BP, which was leasing the rig Deepwater Horizon when it exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and triggering a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, declined to comment.

BP conducted tests Wednesday in preparation for its latest bid to plug the leaking well by force-feeding it heavy drilling mud and cement. BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward said on NBC's "Today" show that he would decide Wednesday morning whether to allow crews to try the procedure called a top kill.

(more)

Read more: http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GULF_OIL_SPILL?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-05-26-08-40-04

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Wasn't that the premise for "The Towering Inferno"?

Chief O'Hallorhan: You know we were pretty lucky tonight, body count's less then 200. You know, one of these days, you're gonna kill 10,000 in one of these firetraps, and I'm gonna keep eating smoke and carrying out bodies until someone asks us... how to build them.

Doug Roberts: Ok, I'm asking.

Chief O'Hallorhan: You know where to reach me.

[DoBotherMe]

2. k&r n/t

[Roland99]

3. To the greatest with the worst of decisions.

Anything to make a few bucks more on top of the Eleventy Billion they'd already made.



ratfuckers.

[Tansy_Gold]

6. I generally prefer

wankers, but I think ratfuckers is a far more accurate description.

:grr:



TG

[happygoluckytoyou]

4. more the premise for the great gatsby i think....

“Nick, on the Buchanans: "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made"”

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. Just saw this in Yahoo Finance

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/AP-Exclusive-Witness-says-BP-apf-3179178022.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=

Meanwhile, the statements from workers ahead of a hearing in New Orleans on Wednesday and a congressional memo about a BP internal investigation of the blast indicated warning signs were ignored. Tests less than an hour before the well blew out found a buildup of pressure that was an "indicator of a very large abnormality," BP's investigator said, according to the congressional memo.

Still, the rig team was "satisfied" that another test was successful and resumed adding the seawater, said the memo by U.S. Reps. Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak to members of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, which is investigating what went wrong.

There were other signs of problems, including an unexpected loss of fluid from a pipe known as a riser five hours before the explosion, which the memo said could have indicated a leak in the blowout preventer, a huge piece of equipment that should have shut down the well in case of an emergency. BP has cited its failure as a contributor to the blast.

The witness statements show rig workers talked just minutes before the blowout about pressure problems in the well. At first, nobody seemed too worried: The chief mate for Transocean left two crew members to deal with the issue on their own.