BP Trial Update II

credit: UK Guardian

The spotlight of judicial process in New Orleans turned away from British Petroleum to its subcontractors, Halliburton and Transocean. Halliburton, a worldwide well services company provided the cement used to allegedly seal the well while Transocean operated the destroyed drilling platform, Deepwater Horizon. The shift in attention no doubt came as a relief to BP which has shelled out billions in fines and civil damages in the aftermath of the largest oil spill in US history [photo]. A Halliburton employee testified to the existence at one time of off-the-record tests that occurred in the weeks after the spill indicating the cement mix was wrong. The head of cementing operations testified that the cement mix "had a low probability of success" and did NOT represent best practices. A Halliburton lawyer told the federal court trial judge sitting without a jury that a slab of the cement in question may exist in its Lafayette, Louisiana lab. Halliburton has been under orders to provide parties and the court with samples of the cement in question.

Also revealed in testimony was the fact that a Halliburton mud logger missed a "gas kick", or sudden increase in gas pressure in the well, while he took a smoking break. He failed to report the kick to the drilling floor. Regardless of Halliburton's culpability in the disaster, BP was undisputedly in charge as owner of the Macondo well, and Halliburton acted as its independent contractor in the well cementing process. BP supervisors could have halted the cementing at any time. An independent expert called by the government said BP should have called a halt. Asked directly by a government lawyer, "Does this mean to you that BP absolved itself of responsibility for the cement job by relying on Halliburton's services?" "No sir, it did not." replied the expert.

A marine safety expert testified that Transocean and its crew violated numerous federal and international maritime safety regulations and concluded the crew was incompetent and the vessel unseaworthy. He also said the drilling rig's maintenance records clearly show the vessel "was in deplorable condition". Undoubtably his testimony will be contradicted by Transocean's own expert witness on the subject.