The seeds of destruction for the Deepwater Horizon rig may have been planted well before its drill bits started churning into the earth a mile under the sea.
Engineering plans for the thousands of feet of pipes and joints, which BP filed with federal regulators prior to drilling, made the well particularly susceptible to a major accident, a number of industry experts say. The design left an unobstructed path for highly pressurized natural gas to reach the wellhead should safety systems fail.
One of those systems, the cement pumped between sections of pipe to seal them off from oil and gas, was far from robust, according to testimony and documents. Some tests to assure the integrity of the cement showed mixed results, while another test was simply skipped.
Gene Beck, a petroleum engineer and well expert who teaches at Texas A&M University, said a well must be designed to keep oil and gas contained in the proper well infrastructure.
“If you believe you can isolate the hydrocarbons, this well design can work,” he said, noting it's used in other wells. “But that premise is pretty weak.”
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