Two Oil Firms Link Rig Blast to 'Plug'

This article from the Wall Street Journal tells exactly what happened on the drilling rig and the question we now have is why? Why did they change the procedures on setting the plug? These paragraphs tell the procedures that are normally followed versus what BP requested be done. That why has now become WHY?

A worker who was on the drilling rig said in an interview that Halliburton was getting ready to set a final cement plug at 8,000 feet below the rig when workers received other instructions. "Usually we set the cement plug at that point and let it set for six hours, then displace the well," said the worker, meaning take out the mud.

According to this worker, BP asked permission from the federal Minerals Management Service to displace the mud before the final plugging operation had begun. The mud in the well weighed 14.3 pounds per gallon; it was displaced by seawater that weighed nearly 50% less. Like BP, the MMS declined to comment on this account.

As the heavy mud was taken out and replaced with much lighter seawater, "that's when the well came at us, basically," said the worker, who was involved in the cementing process.

It makes zero sense and like someone on a website said today, the word sabotage cannot be ruled out when a dumb decision such as this was made. Two parties were involved in this decision that backfired killing 11 workers on the drilling rig and shutting down new offshore drilling -- British Petroleum who asked permission from the Federal Minerals Management Service to change procedures and the person at the Federal Minerals Management Service who granted permission.

WHY would BP take this unnecessary risk and order TransOcean to tell Halliburton to ignore normal prpcedures that work in favor of reversing the order which set off the blast? It doesn't smell right. Either some people at BP are just flat out stupid or it was done on purpose knowing what would happen. BP ignored too many safety rules to not think there is more to this story. What happened with following standard procedures was not going to cost them extra money but it would have assured everything would work as planned. Yet BP took this risk knowing there could be real problems. Once again the question is WHY?

Who was behind the decision to ask to change procedures and for what reason? Has part of BP sold out to the environmentalist who want off shore drilling stopped? The reason we ask is because this catastrophe has given the environmentalist movement a lot more clout and Obama more reasons he can use to shut down new off shore drilling which will drive up gas and heating oil prices and keep us more dependent on foreign sources. This has not smelled right from day one and the stench is getting heavier.

Two Oil Firms Link Rig Blast to 'Plug'
By RUSSELL GOLD, STEPHEN POWER And VANESSA O'CONNELL

Executives from BP PLC, Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton Co. began pointing fingers on Monday over who bears ultimate responsibility for the April 20 oil-rig explosion that took 11 lives and is spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The question will loom large at a Senate hearing Tuesday that will hear from executives of the three companies.

BP, Transocean and Halliburton are set to blame each other in Congressional hearings for last month's big oil-rig explosion and spill. Neil King, Bob O'Brien and Neal Lipschutz discuss. Also, Kara Scannell weighs in on Congressional hearings intended to find out what caused Thursday's sudden market plunge.

BP, the well owner, blames the failure of a big set of valves on the sea floor, known as the blowout preventer, to halt the blowout once it started.

A different account comes from Halliburton, a contractor in the drilling. This account is corroborated to some extent by Transocean, as well as by two workers on the drilling rig, The Wall Street Journal has determined.

This account describes a failure to place a cement plug within the well. The plug is designed to prevent gas from escaping up the pipe to the surface.
WSJ Professional

Before such a plug is placed, the job of keeping underground gas from coming up the pipe is done by heavy drilling fluid inside the well, commonly known as "mud." The plug is normally put in before the mud is removed, but according to the account of Halliburton, Transocean and the two workers, in this case, that wasn't done—drilling mud was removed before a final cement plug was placed in the well.

It is not clear why such a decision would have been made. Rig owner Transocean says that BP, as owner of the well that was just being completed, made key decisions on how to proceed. BP declined to comment on this account of the drilling procedures.

Tim Probert, Halliburton's president of global business lines, plans to testify Tuesday that his company had finished an earlier step, cementing the casing, filling in the area between the pipe and the walls of the well; pressure tests showed the casing had been properly constructed, he will testify.

At this point it is common practice to pour wet cement down into the pipe. The wet cement, which is heavier than the drilling mud, sinks down through the drilling mud and then hardens into a plug thousands of feet down in the well.

The mud then is removed and displaced by seawater; the hardened cement plug holds back any underground gas.

In this case, a decision was made, shortly before the explosion, to perform the remaining tasks in reverse order, according to the expected Senate testimony of Mr. Probert, the Halliburton executive.

"We understand that the drilling contractor then proceeded to displace the riser with seawater prior to the planned placement of the final cement plug…," Mr. Probert says in the prepared testimony, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The "riser" is part of the pipe running from the sea floor up to the drilling rig at the surface.

Lloyd Heinze, chairman of the petroleum engineering department at Texas Tech University, agrees that this is an unusual approach. "Normally, you would not evacuate the riser until you were done with the last plug at the sea floor," he said in an interview.

(snip)

Halliburton's Mr. Probert's prepared statement says: "Prior to the point in the well construction plan that the Halliburton personnel would have set the final cement plug, the catastrophic incident occurred. As a result, the final cement plug was never set."

Halliburton says it was following Transocean's orders and is "contractually bound to comply with the well owner's instructions on all matters relating to the performance of all work‐related activities."

Excerpt: Read More at Wall Street Journal