Hearings: Transocean official denies BP pressured them to complete work quickly

[maddezmom]

Source: NOLA.com

Hearings: Transocean official denies BP pressured them to complete work quickly
By David Hammer, The Times-Picayune
May 27, 2010, 9:34AM

Transocean's top drilling official on the Deepwater Horizon said he was wrapped up with hosting top BP officials in the hours before his rig blew up April 20, but he denied Thursday that his crew was under any pressure from BP to complete its work more quickly.

Under tough questioning by Jason Mathews of the federal Minerals Management Service, the rig's offshore installation manager, Jimmy Harrell, said the cost of delays at the oilfield 50 miles off the Louisiana coast was not compromising safety on the rig.

"So there was no pressure at all about being about $20 million behind?" Mathews asked, referring to documents showing the Deepwater Horizon had been scheduled to start work at another oilfield 43 days earlier.

"I'm sure at times people want to get it done and want to meet timelines," said Harrell in his gravely Mississippi drawl. "But never to jeopardize safety."



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

[Xipe Totec]

1. Are these hearings or herrings?

[thereismore]

2. And so it starts. nt

[jayfish]

4. Yup, Here We Go.

All the players are going to stop pointing fingers and covering each others asses. A year from now the media will be on to the next big thing and it will be business as usual for big oil. When everything goes wrong again in 30 years people will be scratching their heads. All the while saying "how could this happen".

FSH

[maddezmom]

3. Hearings: 'Negative test' to measure well pressure performed twice

Hearings: 'Negative test' to measure well pressure performed twice
By David Hammer, The Times-Picayune
May 27, 2010, 10:21AM
This is an update from the joint hearings by the U.S. Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service held in Kenner Thursday into the explosion and fire aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20, which killed 11 workers and created the Gulf of Mexico oil spill currently fouling Louisiana's coast.

Testimony of Jimmy Harrell of Transocean continued:


Jimmy Harrell, Transocean offshore installation manager on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, testifies during a joint hearing held by the Coast Guard and the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service in Kenner, La., Thursday. The hearing was held to investigate last month's explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, which has caused a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.Members of the investigative board also asked Harrell questions that followed up on Wednesday's testimony by Douglas Brown, the rig's chief mechanic. Brown had said Harrell got into a "skirmish" with BP's company man at a meeting the morning of the incident. Harrell said he actually expressed concern to BP company man Robert Kaluza that a new drilling plan did not include a key test at a morning meeting April 19, the day before the accident.

Harrell said Kaluza's plan did not include a "negative test" to measure pressure in the well, and Harrell said he made sure the test was done before he would agree to displace mud from the riser with lighter seawater. He said he was successful at getting BP to authorize the test and, in fact, the test was performed twice. Harrell said the other BP company man, Don Vidrine, wanted to do the second negative test.

Harrell said he was happy with the results of the two negative tests, which, ideally, would have shown no drilling mud being returned to the rig. But he acknowledged that the first negative test returned 23 barrels of mud and the second test returned 15 barrels. According to previous testimony, there was a total of 51 barrels of mud in the hole.

Federal regulations require drilling rigs to perform a definitive test of the integrity of a well's cement -- called a cement bond log -- if there are concerns with the results of negative and positive pressure tests. Harrell said BP had a team from Schlumberger at the ready to perform a cement bond log, but Harrell said he was happy with the results of the negative test.

A Schlumberger official told The Times-Picayune last week that the team of testers was sent home at 11 a.m. the morning of the accident without ever conducting the cement bond log.

more|:http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/hearings_negative_test_to_meas.html

[Nihil]

5. Thanks for that! This is the stuff that I've been waiting to hear!

> Harrell said he was happy with the results of the two negative tests, which,
> ideally, would have shown no drilling mud being returned to the rig. But
> he acknowledged that the first negative test returned 23 barrels of mud and
> the second test returned 15 barrels. According to previous testimony, there
> was a total of 51 barrels of mud in the hole.
>
> Federal regulations require drilling rigs to perform a definitive test of
> the integrity of a well's cement -- called a cement bond log -- if there are
> concerns with the results of negative and positive pressure tests. Harrell said
> BP had a team from Schlumberger at the ready to perform a cement bond log, but
> Harrell said he was happy with the results of the negative test.

Thanks for the update. :hi:

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. To a layperson reading that, like me

38 out of 51 barrels of mud in the hole came up when an ideal result would have been NONE, and they were happy with the results? That doesn't seem to make sense.

I will be very interested to read the comments of knowledgeable posters whether this is an appropriate response to those results.

[niceypoo]

7. Translation:

BP pressured Transocean to complete work faster

[truedelphi]

8. Halliburton, Transocean & BP pass the money around so much that they are going to stick together

It's like how different members of the head mafia family all stick together, whenever the going is tough.

[truedelphi]

9. Insider Connections - A guide to the incestuous connections of Big Oil

CONNECTIONS

Suspicions arise when an ownership paper trail is followed. Halliburton subcontracted for a company named Transocean, which leased and operated Deepwater Horizon for British Petroleum (BP). Transocean is a subsidiary of Sonat Inc., which merged with the El Paso Corporation (EPC) in March 1999. Douglas Foshee, EPC’s chairman, president and CEO, was hired away from Halliburton. The interim CEO prior to his arrival was Ronald Kuehn of Sonat.

Another previous CEO of EPC was William Wise, who served with Cheney on the influential National Petroleum Council. EPC was the largest single contributor from Texas for Bush-Cheney’s 2000 presidential campaign. Similarly, Wise helped Cheney raise $8 million for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.