Oil Spill Commission's Withdrawn Slide Identified Risky Deepwater Horizon Decisions
According to media reports, the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling withdrew a revealing slide originally intended for a scheduled presentation in November. The November proceeding was a chance for the panel to present tentative findings as part of its ongoing investigation into the causes of the Deepwater Horizon calamity.
The withdrawn slide, obtained by Greenwire, indicated that the companies BP, Halliburton, and Transocean made a series of decisions that enhanced risks associated with the Deepwater Horizon's drilling operations, and that the decisions were made in order to save time. The rig's drilling effort reportedly was behind schedule at the time and was costing some $1.5 million per day.
The findings reflected on the slide were inconsistent with earlier statements by chief counsel to the Commission, Fred Bartlit. In a prior presentation, Bartlit stated that workers involved in the drilling project, both onshore and on the Deepwater Horizon platform, did not take shortcuts on safety as a means to save money on the expensive oil exploration effort.
A representative of the National Commission stated that the withdrawn slide was removed from Bartlit's presentation at the last moment because it was still subject to review by the commissioners. Apparently the item was uploaded to the National Commission's website for a time, but later was removed.
The slide, entitled "Various Decisions That May Have Increased Risk," notes that ten of eleven identified decisions were riskier than proceeding in an alternative way, while the other decision "possibly" was riskier. The slide notes, too, that nine of the risky decisions "saved time" versus the alternative. All of the decisions, according to the slide, were unnecessary.
The risky and unnecessary decisions, as cited on the National Commission's slide, include:
- Not waiting for more centralizers
- Not reevaluating cement slurry design
- Not waiting for foam stability results
- Not running diagnostics on float equipment to ensure conversion or seal
- Using combined spacer and not flushing from system
- Displacing mud from riser before setting plug
- Setting cement plug 3000 feet deep in seawater
- Not running cement evaluation log
- Not installing additional plugs or barriers
- Undertaking simultaneous operations could confound kick detection
- Bypassing pits and flow out meter during displacement
In the aftermath of the April disaster, the various companies implicated in the Deepwater Horizon tragedy have sought to shift blame amongst themselves for the bad decisions that preceded the oil platform's horrific destruction, with the attendant loss of life and injury to many workers.
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