BP Oil Spill: Halliburton and Transocean at Fault for Disaster Says BP

London (Sept 8) – In today’s report released by BP outlining the failures and shortcomings leading to the worse environmental disaster in decades, claims that it was their contractors, Halliburton, and Transocean at fault.

It seems likely on the surface in light of Halliburton’s alleged misconduct in Iraq that BP has more than likely hit the nail on the head with this one.

BP is claiming those contractors, particularly Halliburton’s decision or failures during cementing the casing of the well. Had the contractors been properly monitoring the well, crews onboard the environmental time bomb, would have noticed an increase in pressure in the well, which led to the explosion.

The report released by BP outlined eight specific failures on the part of both Halliburton, and Transocean.  “Over a 40-minute period, the Transocean rig crew failed to recognize and act on the influx of hydrocarbons into the well,” declining to comment on whether BP staff were also responsible for monitoring procedures.

Halliburton is being accused of using an “unstable” cement mixture that allowed hydrocarbons to leak into the well. During this unapproved method, the crews of the Deepwater Horizon rig allowed the venting of gasses onto the rig floor instead of, diverting the gasses towards the sea. This situation developed as the rig crew was responsible for diverting the flow of drilling mud and hydrocarbons into the wrong system after the blowout occurred.

Along with allegations that Halliburton lacked the necessary skills and competency to conduct such a mission, BP pointed out the Transocean, owner of both the rig and Blowout Preventer Valve were not following proper testing and maintenance procedures. “The investigation team found indications of potential weaknesses in the testing regime and maintenance management system for the BOP.”

Cameron International is the actual manufacturer of the Blowout Preventer Valve, and as reported earlier, failed to overhaul the blowout valve as mandated by law. This procedure overlooked, required the company to completely dismantle and test the entire device prior to placing the vavle back into service.

Both Transocean and Halliburton have countered the claims.

Regardless of the contractors ‘claims’ of innocence, one fact remains very real, the rig exploded into flames, killed 11 crew members, and caused the worse environmental disaster in modern times.

Not all the finger pointing will reverse the permanent damage to the Gulf of Mexico due to dangerous, and greed driven deepwater oil exploration.

Posted by worldnews on September 8, 2010. Filed under Breaking News,England,Environment,Headline News,International Business News,National News,National-Headline News,News,United Kingdom,WorldNewsVine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.