Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, according to doc**ents and testimony
provided to a congressional committee, lawmakers said today.
“Significant pressure discrepancies were recorded,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., citing reports that a BP
senior vice president delivered to panel investigators.
James Dupree, the BP senior vice president for the Gulf of Mexico, told the committee staff that nearly 17 hours after three initial “positive pressure” tests, the
well failed a “negative pressure” test. A subsequent test was
inconclusive, and showed major discrepancies in the pressure exerted on
different components of the well, which should have been equal.
The anomalous test result could provide a major clue about what went wrong April 20 when gas flowed uncontrollably out of the well, unchecked by multiple cement
barriers and well casing.
The issue was getting sharp scrutiny during a House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee hearing Wednesday, as lawmakers grilled executives from
four companies involved in operating or outfitting the rig and the well.
Three of those officials — from well owner BP, rig operator Transocean, and cementing contractor Halliburton Co. — also testified in separate Senate committee
hearings Tuesday.
The congressional investigations by at least seven different panels dovetail with another probe now under way in Louisiana, where the U.S. Coast Guard and
Minerals Management Service are conducting their first hearings into the
disaster.
Besides the pressure test revelations, lawmakers said Wednesday they also have identified “unexpected” modifications and leaks in the hydraulic system of a
crucial device designed as a final safeguard against blowouts.
BP officials have said that workers activated the blowout preventer — or BOP — and that it should have worked automatically as well, but shear rams inside it did
not successfully slam shut and cut through pipe to stop the gushing oil.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., the head of the Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, said panel staff have uncovered significant
problems with the blowout preventer used on the Deepwater Horizon drill
rig.” They include:
• A “significant leak in a key hydraulic system” that provides emergency power to the shear rams designed to cut through the drill pipe and seal the well.
• Unexpected modifications to the blowout preventer, including the connection of “a useless test ram” to the device instead of one designed to seal tight
around any pipe in the well. Stupak said workers spent a day trying to
activate the test ram after the blowout, without realizing the device
couldn't work.
“BP told us the modifications on the BOP were extensive” and that schematics provided by Transocean “didn't match the structure on the ocean floor,” Stupak
said.
Transocean CEO Steve Newman told the panel that it was unclear whether the changes— first noticed after the rig explosion — would have affected the BOP's
operation.
Stupak said the committee is also investigating whether the cutting capacity of the blowout preventer was sufficient to shear through the pipe and seal the
well and whether emergency controls on the device may have failed.
The head of Houston-based Cameron International Corp., which manufactured the BOP, defended its design and reliability.
“Our BOPs have a very long history of reliable performance, including performance in some of the harshest operating conditions in the world,” said Cameron CEO
Jack Moore. More than 2,500 Cameron blowout preventers are operating
worldwide, Moore said, with 130 of them operating in deep water.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, said it was clear there were problems in the operation of the rig and the Macondo well.
“The facts that we have uncovered through this investigation . . . show that there was, in all probability, shoddy maintenance,” Barton said. Additionally, “there
were mislabeled components” and “diagrams didn't depict the actual
equipment” operating on the sea floor.
Newman has insisted that while the failure of the blowout preventer may have allowed oil to flow unchecked from crumpled pipe on the seabed, it could not have
triggered the initial blowout. Instead, he has suggested the integrity
of cement barriers on the wellbore is to blame.
The discrepancy in pressure testing of the well after the cementing “would lead to a conclusion that there was something happening in the well bore that
shouldn't be happening,” Newman said. “A negative outcome for either one
of those (pressure) tests would indicate that there are potential
problems,” Newman said.
BP America Chairman Lamar McKay told the House panel said the pressure discripancy “is critical and the investigation will have to tear that apart.”
The negative pressure test — which produced the inconclusive results — is designed to verify the integrity of cement barriers and well casing. “Fluid
pressure inside the well is reduced and the well is observed to see
whether any gas leaks into the well through the cement or casing,”
Waxman said.
Waxman outlined the information provided by BP's Dupree and in doc**ents submitted by the company:
• The initial negative pressure test was conducted around 5 p.m. April 20, with a “not satisfactory” or “inconclusive” result.
• As a result, workers conducted a subsequent negative pressure test that revealed a major discrepancy between the pressure on pipes called “kill and choke”
lines and the much higher pressure on the drill pipe.
Waxman cited Dupree's assertion that the three pressures always should be equal.
Waxman acknowledged that what happened in the moments after the second negative pressure test “is murky.”
Dupree told committee staff “that he believed the well blew moments after the second pressure test,” Waxman said. But Waxman said lawyers for BP contacted
the committee with “a different account” on Tuesday. According to BP's
later account, Waxman said, the additional pressure tests were completed
by 8 p.m. and the results apparently “justified ending the test and
proceeding with well operations.”
Initial congressional hearings have focused on the companies at the center of the drilling operation but lawmakers are also preparing to probe the
federal regulators that were tasked with regulating offshore drilling.
Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville, said officials with the Interior Department and the Minerals Management Service “rubber stamped” a spill recovery plan
prepared by BP and didn't require adequate preparations for the kind of
oil spill now threatening states along the Gulf Coast.
He said equipment for drilling a relief well, boom for containing the spill and chemical oil dispersants should have been stockpiled ahead of time.
“It just seems like more care should have been delivered up front,” Burgess aid.
jennifer.dlouhy@chron.com
