Congressional committee members probing the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill Wednesday homed in on possible defects in cementing and in a critical safety device as they grilled oil company executives about what Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., called “a calamitous series of equipment and operational failures.”
The BP well, drilled 18,000 feet below the sea floor, may have failed two critical pressure tests in the hours before its April 20 blowout, according to testimony from executives and interviews with company officials, along with more than 100,000 pages of documents.
And the blowout preventer, a massive apparatus designed to contain the gas that ignited the rig fire, had a leak in a crucial hydraulic system as well as a defectively configured ram, its manufacturer told investigators.
As oil and dead birds washed onto Louisiana shores, the grilling of executives from BP America Inc., Transocean Ltd., Halliburton Corp. and Cameron marked the second day of congressional scrutiny after two Senate committee hearings Monday.
Members of the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee focused on the cementing of the well, which may have caused its explosion, and on BP-ordered modifications to the blowout preventer.
Traditional industry allies were among the companies’ harshest critics. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said documents show that there was “in all probability shoddy maintenance,” as well as “mislabeled components” and “diagrams (that) didn’t depict the actual equipment” used in the operation.
The oil spill has intensified a debate in Congress over whether new offshore drilling should be permitted. West Coast senators planned to introduce legislation today to ban new drilling in federal waters off the Pacific Coast. A similar bill has been introduced in the House.
As efforts to pinpoint the cause of the accident intensified, BP continued to assess ways to plug the leak, which is spewing 210,000 gallons of oil into the gulf daily.
The company lowered a second containment box known as a “top hat” onto the sea floor late Tuesday, but it is also considering whether to insert a tube into the piping instead. The tube would be ready to deploy late today or early Friday.
A third so-called junk shot procedure, in which shredded tires, golf balls and other material would be pumped into the leak, could be available late next week, according to BP.
Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., ridiculed the company’s efforts, saying that BP is “largely making it up as they go.” He added: “When we heard the best minds were on the case, we expected MIT and not the PGA.”
Tests used to assess the condition of the cement barrier and casing around the well drew repeated scrutiny.
“The timing of the accident indicates that the cementing was likely a culprit, as the accident occurred soon after the cement was injected into the well,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo.
Waxman said James Dupree, BP’s senior vice president for the Gulf of Mexico, told committee staff that Halliburton completed cementing at 12:35 a.m. on April 20, the day of the explosion. But among tests performed hours before the blowout, one was “not satisfactory” and another was “inconclusive,” he said, adding that he believed the well blew moments after the second test.
But BP lawyers later provided a different account, Waxman said, specifically that after more tests, “company officials determined that the additional results justified ending the test and proceeding with well operations.”
“This confusion among BP officials appears to echo confusion on the rig,” Waxman said. “What we do know is that shortly before 10 p.m., just two hours after well operations apparently resumed, gas surged from the well up the riser and the rig exploded in a fireball.”
An executive of Halliburton, which did the cementing, has said that the company’s work was done “in accordance with accepted industry practice” and BP’s plans.
Tim Probert, president of the Halliburton’s global business lines, cautioned against a “rush to judgment.” But he added that had the blowout preventer “functioned as expected, this catastrophe would not have happened.”
Along the gulf coast, the Coast Guard and local agencies have so far laid 284 miles of boom, and more shipments are expected over the next few days. In recent days, the weather has been too rough for boats to skim the oil from the surface or set controlled burns of the oil.
So far, at least five birds have been treated in response to oil exposure. There were reports that 18 birds, 87 turtles and six dolphins have died, according to the Coast Guard, although some of those deaths could have occurred naturally.
