BP and Halliburton Knew Deepwater Disaster Cement Was Unstable, Report Says [Oildisaster]

Halliburton and BP knew the cement mixture used to seal the Macondo well, the only drilled through the Deepwater Rig explosion, was unreliable but used it anyway, according a new report from the presidential commission investigating the disaster.

The report, issued today, found that Halliburton had conducted three tests which showed that the cement didn’t meet industry standards. The effects of at the least this type of tests was given to BP on March 8, over a month before the explosion. The panel’s letter reads:

Halliburton and BP both had ends up in March showing that a completely similar foam slurry design to the only actually pumped at the Macondo well could be unstable, but neither acted upon that data; and Halliburton (and perhaps BP) must have considered redesigning the foam slurry before pumping it at the Macondo well.

While Fred Bartlit Jr, the panel’s lead investigator, said that the cement might not had been the main explanation for the explosion, he says that if the cement were up to standards it’d have prevented the disaster.

The president’s commission obtained the cement recipe from Halliburton and handed it over to Chevron for testing. It failed nine separate stability tests in conditions simulating those of the Macondo well.

BP had pegged the cement as a prime reason behind the disaster in an internal investigation, though Halliburton testified that it had done all requisite testing and that BP’s faulty well design was responsible. Still, Bartlit says, the unstable cement is barely one crucial link in a series of negligence that bring about the blow-out. [ Oil Spill Commission via NYT ]

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This post is tagged: cement mixture, halliburton, internal investigation, prime reason, stability tests