BP Deepwater Horizon operations were six weeks behind schedule, documents say

BP's drilling operations were about six weeks behind schedule when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, according to documents cited Wednesday at a hearing examining the cause of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Reading from BP documents that have not been made public, BP safety leader Steve Tink said his company had applied to use the Deepwater Horizon in another oilfield on March 8, 43 days before the accident.

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Others have suggested that the argument was actually over whether the crew needed to perform a negative pressure test on the well, even though that was not part of the drill plan. Documents released in congressional hearings show the negative test, which Transocean employees pushed for, was run and then repeated and eventually showed a good result, apparently allowing them to proceed with displacing the drilling mud.

A top BP official on the rig, Robert Kaluza, asserted his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself in declining to testify tosday. Kaluza's attorney, Shaun Clarke, issued a statement Wednesday saying his client "did no wrong on the Deepwater Horizon, and we will make damn sure that it comes out at the appropriate time.

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http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/bp_deepwater_horizon_operation.html

for a very long time...