Documents show earlier concerns over BP rig safety

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2010/05/30/documents_show_earlier_concerns_over_bp_rig_safety/

Documents show earlier concerns over BP rig safety
Worries raised about key pieces prior to disaster

By Ian Urbina
New York Times / May 30, 2010

WASHINGTON — Internal documents from BP show that there were serious problems and safety concerns with the Deepwater Horizon rig far earlier than those the company described to Congress last week.

The problems involved the well casing and the blowout preventer, which are considered critical pieces in the chain of events that led to the disaster on the rig.

The documents show that in March, after several weeks of problems on the rig, BP was struggling with a loss of “well control.’’ And as far back as 11 months ago, the company was concerned about the well casing and the blowout preventer.

On June 22, 2009, for example, BP engineers expressed concerns that the metal well casing that the company wanted to use might collapse under high pressure. “This would certainly be a worst-case scenario,’’ Mark E. Hafle, a senior drilling engineer at BP, warned in an internal report. “However, I have seen it happen so know it can occur.’’

The company went ahead with the casing, but only after getting special permission from BP colleagues because the casing violated the company’s own safety policies and design standards. The internal reports do not explain why the company allowed for an exception to its guidelines. BP documents released last week to The Times revealed that company officials knew the casing was the riskier of two options.

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:mad:

:kick:

nt

without being responsible for the easily foreseeable consequences of their actions.