The Transocean manager of the doomed Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig told a board of inquiry on Thursday that BP officials aboard the rig wanted to skip required pressure tests and tried to impose a drilling plan sent from BP's Houston headquarters that had not been approved by the federal government's Minerals Management Service.
Testifying before a Coast Guard and MMS board here, Jimmy Harrell, the Deepwater Horizon’s offshore installation manager, said BP initially wanted to replace heavy drilling lubricant, commonly called mud, at the bottom of the rig’s drill pipe with lighter seawater without performing a negative-pressure test. He said the plan to proceed with removing the drilling mud came from BP's Houston headquarters and had not been approved by MMS.
Harrell refused, however, to go forward without the negative-pressure test, which inovles sucking the air out of the pipeline to see if gas or oil leaks into the pipe. The test is critical to be certain that the pipe is secure before the heavy mud, which is the primary force keeping gas from surging up the pipe, is removed.
“I would not displace without doing a negative test,” Harrell said.
A blast of snow, ice, wind and plunging temperatures stirred up dangerous travel conditions in parts...
Explosions roared through the canyons lining the Klamath River earlier this year, signaling a new chapter...
Puerto Rico is experiencing a widespread power outage after the power grid collapsed, affecting nearly the...
