The Wall Street Journal unloads a huge, devastating investigation into the BP oil catastrophe this morning, finding that the company cut corners in several areas to get an over-budget, over-deadline project finished.
The paper has been doing excellent work on this story but this one particularly shows the paper flexing its muscles (emphasis in all quotes below are mine). By the way I love the lede:
It was a difficult drill from the start.
Simple, but sets up the story nicely. And it puts the reporting that follows—on how BP didn’t conform with industry best practices—into context:
Halliburton, the cementing contractor, advised BP to install numerous devices to make sure the pipe was centered in the well before pumping cement, according to Halliburton documents, provided to congressional investigators and seen by the Journal. Otherwise, the cement might develop small channels that gas could squeeze through.
In an April 18 report to BP, Halliburton warned that if BP didn’t use more centering devices, the well would likely have “a SEVERE gas flow problem.” Still, BP decided to install fewer of the devices than Halliburton recommended—six instead of 21.
The paper’s Ben Casselman and Russel Gold (with the assistance of six contributors) also report that BP used a single pipe instead of a double pipe, which would have offered a backup layer of protection.
And more on the rush job:
Despite the well design and the importance of the cement, daily drilling reports show that BP didn’t run a critical, but time-consuming, procedure that might have allowed the company to detect and remove gas building up in the well.
Before doing a cement job on a well, common industry practice is to circulate the drilling mud through the well, bringing the mud at the bottom all the way up to the drilling rig.
It would have taken six to twelve hours to do it properly. BP did just 30 minutes, the Journal says.
The picture the Journal paints is one that’s going to make it that much harder for BP to deflect blame on to its contractors, as it has tried to do.
BP also didn’t run tests to check on the last of the cement after it was pumped into the well, despite the importance of cement to this well design and despite Halliburton’s warning that the cement might not seal properly. Workers from Schlumberger Ltd. were aboard and available to do such tests, but on the morning of April 20, about 12 hours before the blowout, BP told Schlumberger workers their work was done, according to Schlumberger. They caught a helicopter back to shore at 11 a.m.
BP told the Journal Tuesday that the tests weren’t run because they were needed only if there were signs of trouble in the cement job, and the work seemed to go smoothly. But the same day, BP officials told congressional investigators there were signs before the disaster that the cement might have been contaminated and that some cementing equipment didn’t work properly, according to a memo from two Congressmen.
You think the post office or DMV would have done a better job running this? The paper also reports that BP appears to have violated its drilling permit.
Kevin Senegal, a subcontractor employee who cleaned tanks, said he was told to be ready to clean two tanks on a coming shift instead of the usual one. “To me it looked like they were trying to rush everything,” he said.
Awful lot of rushing around going on. It sure reminds me of what worker bees do when somebody up the chain decides something’s taking too long. I imagine that will be a good line of inquiry for reporters and government investigators alike.
That will come. In the meantime, this is outstanding work by The Wall Street Journal—one of those authoritative, deep-dive reconstructions that would stand out even in the paper’s pre-Murdoch era.
The information in this very informative article will come in handy. Remember there are 11 lives that BP is responsible for snuffing out for profit. I'd really love to actually see them up on murder charges. I hope the families sue the pants of those jerks who care more about making a buck than keeping their employees safe. Does BP have anything to do with Massey Energy? Just askin.
#1 Posted by Debbie McDaniel, CJR on Fri 28 May 2010 at 05:09 PM
The center for public integrity has a story which shows that these guys have developed a culture of not caring about safety from an OSHA whistleblower:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/2085/
"Two refineries owned by oil giant BP account for 97 percent of all flagrant violations found in the refining industry by government safety inspectors over the past three years, a Center for Public Integrity analysis shows. Most of BP’s citations were classified as “egregious willful” by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and reflect alleged violations of a rule designed to prevent catastrophic events at refineries...
[T]he firm has been under intense OSHA scrutiny since its refinery in Texas City, Texas, exploded in March 2005, killing 15 workers...
Refinery inspection data obtained by the Center under the Freedom of Information Act for OSHA’s nationwide program and for the parallel Texas City inspection show that BP received a total of 862 citations between June 2007 and February 2010 for alleged violations at its refineries in Texas City and Toledo, Ohio.
Of those, 760 were classified as “egregious willful” and 69 were classified as “willful.” Thirty of the BP citations were deemed “serious” and three were unclassified. Virtually all of the citations were for alleged violations of OSHA’s process safety management standard, a sweeping rule governing everything from storage of flammable liquids to emergency shutdown systems. BP accounted for 829 of the 851 willful violations among all refiners cited by OSHA during the period analyzed by the Center.
Top OSHA officials told the Center in an interview that BP was cited for more egregious willful violations than other refiners because it failed to correct the types of problems that led to the 2005 Texas City accident even after OSHA pointed them out. In Toledo, problems were corrected in one part of the refinery but went unaddressed in another. Jordan Barab, deputy assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, said it was clear that BP “didn’t go nearly far enough” to correct deficiencies after the 2005 blast.
“The only thing you can conclude is that BP has a serious, systemic safety problem in their company,” Barab said."...
OSHA defines a willful violation as one “committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.” An egregious willful violation is considered so severe that it can result in a penalty each time a violation occurs, rather than a single penalty for all violations of a regulation. A serious violation is described as one creating a “substantial probability” of death or serious injury. OSHA can refer cases involving worker deaths and wanton disregard for safety rules to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution...
In a letter to refinery managers last year, OSHA’s enforcement director, Richard Fairfax, wrote that in the previous 15 years, the refining industry had recorded “more fatal or catastrophic incidents related to the release of highly hazardous chemicals ... than any other industry sector covered by the [process safety management] standard.” OSHA inspectors, Fairfax wrote, were finding “many of the same problems repeatedly.”"
Now keep the above in mind as you read this story from Democracy Now:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/5/27/coast_guard_grounds_ships_involved_in
"JUAN GONZALEZ: In Louisiana, seven fishermen involved in the cleanup of the BP oil spill were hospitalized on Wednesday after reporting nausea, dizziness, headaches and chest pains. The crew members were working aboard three separate vessels. The fishermen were likely exposed to both the leaked oil and chemical dispersants. As a precautionary measure, the Unified Comm
#2 Posted by Thimbles, CJR on Sat 29 May 2010 at 11:13 AM
"OSHA whistleblower" Low blood sugar brain issue. I meant to type FOIA. As the famous Socrates said to have said when issuing a rare mea culpa: "Whoopsy."
#3 Posted by Thimbles, CJR on Sat 29 May 2010 at 11:17 AM