As BP prepares to launch its latest attempt to cap the gusher that’s spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, an internal investigation reveals the company may have made a “fundamental mistake” in the hours leading up to the rig explosion that precipitated the disaster.
BP officials told the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations that the company had identified new warning signs of problems before the April 20 explosion that brought down the Deepwater Horizon, two congressmen said.
Reps. Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak said in a committee memo that the warning signs include an unexpected loss of fluid from a pipe known as a “riser” five hours before the explosion. That suggests there could have been a leak in the blowout preventer.
Engineers conducting tests on the system reduced the pressure to one of the lines to zero, while the pressure on the drill began to build. The memo says BP’s investigator indicates that may have been a “fundamental mistake” because the rising pressure was an “indicator of a very large abnormality.”
Rig workers also testified of warning signs before the blast. One worker said managers from rig owner Transocean Ltd. worried that day that BP, which ran the operation, was not taking the right steps to contain the pressure.
Senior Transocean managers complained April 20 that BP was “taking shortcuts” by replacing heavy drilling fluid with seawater in the well, according to sworn testimony by Truitt Crawford, a rig roustabout. BP was leasing the rig and is responsible for stopping the leak and the cleanup.
The seawater was being used in preparation for dropping a final blob of cement into the well as a temporary plug for the pipe. Workers had finished pumping the cement into the exploratory well to bolster and seal it against leaks until a later production phase.
Crawford said seawater would provide less weight to contain surging pressure from the ocean depths. His testimony was expected to be part of a hearing in New Orleans. A BP spokesman declined to comment on what he said.
Dozens of worker statements obtained by The Associated Press describe the hours and minutes before the sudden, violent blowout and many said they were concerned about the pressure coming from below.
Meanwhile, BP’s latest experimental bid to plug its seabed oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico hung in the balance early Wednesday as its top executive reviewed overnight tests before deciding whether to go ahead.
Chief Executive Tony Hayward said he would decide Wednesday morning whether to give the green light for crews to try to choke off the massive leak a mile below the sea by force-feeding it heavy drilling mud and cement.
Hayward told NBC’s “Today” show that if he gives the green light, he expected the top kill procedure to happen Wednesday.
The top kill involves pumping enough mud into the gusher to overcome the flow of the well, which has leaked millions of gallons of oil into the water since an April 20 rig explosion. Engineers then plan to follow it up with cement that the company hopes will permanently seal the well.
Dr. Ed Overton, an environmental scientist at the Louisiana State University, tells “The Early Show” that, in his view, the chances of success are about 50/50 — perhaps slightly better.
CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports there are concerns that if the pressure of the oil shooting from the well is too great, the top kill attempt could actually force the broken valves open even wider, making the spill worse.
“I’m sure that they looked at the consequences,” Dr. Overton told CBS. “When you’re in a situation like this, you try to do things that will not make the situation worse.”
“I think what BP and everybody’s doing is low risk, low gain, and we’re hoping that we hit the jackpot and slow it down significantly,” added Overton.
