THE TRUTH SHALL FLOAT TO THE SURFACE..IN PIECES
HOUSTON — COAST GUARD INQUIRY
If you haven't been watching the Coast Guard-led inquiry into the disaster, on C-Span, you have been missing the three ring circus of denial, side-stepping, fifth amendment, dance that guilty people usually do to cover their posterior regions.
Jesse Gagliano, who is a technical advisor for Halliburton, testified Tuesday that he warned BP that it risked gas leaks in the Macondo well. The warning, he told was sent via e-mails to BP engineers, including one who refused to testify on Tuesday. It stated that if they cut back on stabilizers for the pipe going down the hole there would be a risk of a gas explosion.
Halliburton which was involved in cementing the well has a mixed track record. Halliburton mixes in nitrogen to make its slurry more elastic. Faulty Halliburton cement is being investigated as a possible co culprit as part of/or as contributing factor.
Combined with the latest information from the inquiry, Gagliano testified that two days before the explosion he sent BP a computer model showing severe risk of gas flowing into the cemented well if it used fewer than seven "centralizers" at different depths of the pipe. The centralizers help the slurry move evenly through the environment.
He said he modeled seven centralizers, because he had already been told by Halliburton that BP did not run the additional 15 as planned. He noted that he had met with BP officials on April 15 and told them his concerns.
Then too, he said, he recommended more centralizers. He said, "I notified BP of the potential issue." He also stated, in addition to e-mails he shared his concerns with BP engineers with whom he shared an office.
THE EMAIL CHAIN OF CATASTROPHE
BP engineer Brian Morel (no pictures available for some reason) invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself by answering questions. Possibly he should of used a phone instead of those emails that never seem to go away.
House lawmakers in June revealed e-mails from Morel defending the decision to use fewer centralizers. "Hopefully, the pipe stays centralized due to gravity," he wrote, adding that "it's too late to get any more product to the rig."
It also surfaced that he told a BP colleague that the company was likely to make last-minute changes in the well. "We could be running it in 2-3 days, so need a relative quick response. Sorry for the late notice, this has been nightmare well which has everyone all over the place," Morel wrote.
The e-mail chain, which included Gagliano, culminated with the following message by another worker: "This has been a crazy well for sure."
HALLIBURTON RECORDS
The November 2005 accident where the Deepwater Horizon was positioned, was above another well in the Gulf, faulty cement work allowed wall-supporting steel casing to come apart. Almost 15,000 gallons of drilling fluid spilled into the Gulf.
Just a week later in a nearby well at another platform, cement improperly seeped through drilling fluid. As a result of an additive meant to quicken setting time, the cement then failed to block a gas influx into the well. When the crew finally replaced heavy drilling fluid with lighter seawater, as they also did last month before the blowout at Deepwater Horizon, the well flowed out of control.
The federal commission's schedule today calls for testimony is to focus on the history of offshore drilling, regulations and the apparent risks. Results could effect the moratorium. The only others who have failed to testify are the top two BP officials on the rig when it exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and setting off the Gulf spill. Robert Kaluza also invoked the Fifth Amendment, while Don Vidrine has cited illness.
Earlier Tuesday, a worker with BP partner Transocean said a high-ranking Transocean employee indicated a pressure test problem had been resolved hours before BP's Gulf of Mexico well blew out. Daun Winslow testified that there was confusion among workers in the drill shack who were talking before the explosion about a negative pressure test, a procedure typically done before a well is plugged.
Winslow said he left while the drill team and tool pushers were discussing the pressure test to avoid disturbing them. Jim Harrell, the highest-ranking Transocean person on the rig, later gave him a "thumbs up," indicating it had been resolved, he added.
Transocean owns the rig that exploded April 20.