Safety barrier removed before rig exploded: report

[maddezmom]

Source: MarketWatch

An attorney representing a rig worker who survived the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion said oil giant BP Plc /quotes/comstock/13*!bp/quotes/nls/bp (BP 48.99, -1.34, -2.67%) and the drilling platform's owner, Transocean Ltd. /quotes/comstock/13*!rig/quotes/nls/rig (RIG 67.80, -1.90, -2.73%) , started to remove a mud barrier before a final cement plug was installed, The Times-Picayune reported on Friday.

When the explosion occurred, BP was attempting to seal off an exploratory well. To properly cap a well, drillers rely on three lines of defense to prevent an explosive blowout: a column of heavy mud in the well and the drilling riser that runs up to the rig; at least two cement plugs in the well with a column of mud between them; and a blowout preventer that is supposed to seal the well if the mud and plugs fail. If all of the mud was still present, it would have helped push back against the gas burping up toward the rig, though it might not have held it back indefinitely, the paper said.

BP declined to answer the paper's questions about exactly how far along they were in the process of closing the well head 5,000 feet below the Deepwater Horizon rig when the explosion occurred.

In a statement to the Times-Picayyune, cementing contractor Halliburton Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!hal/quotes/nls/hal (HAL 27.46, -1.29, -4.49%) said it completed the pouring of a cement lining 20 hours before the blowout. After that cement lining is done, the federal Minerals Management Service requires at least two prefabricated cement plugs to be placed at the bottom of the well and farther up, with mud packed in between. Times-Picayyune said Halliburton's official statement shows there was still one more cement plug to be inserted


Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/safety-barrier-removed-before-rig-exploded-report-2010-05-07

[florida08]

1. more details

of incompetency. B-b-but it was a conspiracy caused by liberal environmentalists..:eyes: Thanks for posting..important evidence to
sue the hell out of them

[hugo_from_TN]

2. Where is the incompentency?

The were removing the mud barrier in order to install the second concrete plug. It sounds like that is that standard procedure. Can you explain your comment?

[piedmont]

3. Then the "standard procedure" failed. Who came up with the standard procedure?

If you're just following the plan, and the plan fails as spectacularly as this, then the planner just may be incompetent, don't you think?

[hugo_from_TN]

5. There is no indication that the procedure failed.

They were executing the standard procedure when the well blew. Whether or not removing the mud caused the failure or contributed in any way is not known yet. Hopefully the investigation will uncover the root cause of the failure so it can be prevented in the future.

[piedmont]

6. 4 million gallons of oil says different. If the procedure for extracting oil...

results in thousands of barrels per day gushing uncontrolled into the Gulf, something was wrong with the procedure. It should have taken this possibility into account. A "shit happens" attitude on the part of the oil industry is not compatible with life in the Gulf.

[defendandprotect]

4. k