- Banned
- #1
From the Wall Street Journal:
Experts To Cite Cement, Human Error At Senate Hearing On Gulf Oil Spill - WSJ.com
Halliburton was in charge of the cement operation at the rig.
Experts To Cite Cement, Human Error At Senate Hearing On Gulf Oil Spill - WSJ.com
...Bud Danenberger, the former chief of the offshore regulatory program at the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, will tell the panel that from 1992 through 2006, 18 of 39 blowouts--in which gas rushes up through the pipelines--involved cementing operations. Without offering any conclusions about the cause of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, he will say that an industry standard should be developed to address cementing problems, how they occur and what action should be taken when they do occur.
Danenberger will also testify that there is "no evidence" that requiring oil rigs to use acoustic backup systems "would have made a difference in this incident." He said that workers had already tried to activate underseas equipment to shut off the well, called a blowout preventer, before the oil rig was evacuated, and "it is unlikely that additional signals sent acoustically to the stack would have prevented a blowout."
Beck will say that cement is one of the key ways to guard against a blowout, but "perhaps the most difficult barrier to install and control."
Halliburton was in charge of the cement operation at the rig.