BP accepts blame for Gulf of Mexico spill after leaked memo reveals engineer misread pressure readin

[Jumping John]

Source: The DailyMail

BP accepts blame for Gulf of Mexico spill after leaked memo reveals engineer misread pressure reading

By DANIEL BATES
Last updated at 4:44 PM on 30th August 2010

BP has for the first time admitted that it made mistakes which led to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to U.S. reports.

The oil giant’s internal investigation found that managers misinterpreted data that told them a blowout was imminent on the very day the disaster happened.

Hours later the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 men and causing the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

Now its own internal probe, which it began immediately after the spill began, found that on April 20 managers misread pressure data and gave their approval for rig workers to replace drilling fluid in the well with seawater.

The seawater was not heavy enough to prevent gas that had been leaking into the well from firing up the pipe to the rig, causing the explosion.

The investigation has also asked why John Guide, an engineer with BP and the team leader overseeing the project, ignored warnings about weaknesses in cement outside the well which could have prevented the gas from escaping.

BP intends to release details of the 200-page report in the next week or so.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1307439/BP-accepts-blame-Gulf-Mexico-spill-leaked-memo-reveals-engineer-misread-pressure-reading.html#ixzz0yF6yG67t

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I am surprised this was kept so low key by the media. This must be why the engineer refused to testify in front of the body doing the investigation.

[UpInArms]

1. now - give BP the death penalty.

eom

[Tansy_Gold]

3. I second that motion. FRSP for BP n/t

[glitch]

2. All the cut corners and an engineer, under pressure to cut corners, 'misreads' a pressure gauge?

Seems a bit pat.

[Amonester]

4. to the fat cat$ (i,g, the real criminals) it has to always be the fault of

the 'lesser people' (their own words)

so sick of their sh*t

[hedgehog]

5. Companies can talk safety all they want to , but as long as employees

get rewarded for bypassing safety regs to push production, it's just so much hot air.

I'd lay odds that no one misread a gage, that BP has pushed the envelope before without causing an accident, so the thinking was that everything was fine. After all, those engineers always put in a safety factor, don'cha know, so if they say it'll take 200psi, the real number is 250!

[JoeyT]

7. +1

Anyone that's ever worked in this kind of job in pretty much any industry will tell you that there's pressure from above to ignore instrument readings, codes, and safety when the higher ups think it will increase productivity or prevent a shutdown. And if you don't do it, they'll fire you for bullshit and find someone that will.

[truedelphi]

9. "Sixty Minutes" laid out how the day of the explosion

During a meeting on the rig, the Deep Water Horizon people were told that BP would be in charge, rather than the usual Deep Water Horizon folks.

And the whole thing that was important that day was cutting corners, as the project was already behind schedule, with tens of millions in cost.

Also, this whole catastrophe would not have occurred if the annular had been repaired, or the entire Blowout Preventer had been replaced.

It wasn't just one set of corners that was cut, it was set after set of corners that were cut.

The Chief Electrical Technician had the power to shut down the whole rig - and he was concerned about the annular/blowout preventer problems.

But BP's culture of incompetence was such that I think this Ecectronic Techician Chief knew if he did go so far as to shut the rig down, he would be fired, and the rig would be activated without any real changes being made.

[bherrera]

16. I doubt this version of events

I am an engineer, and I direct contractors for the transportation department in a city in Spain. I believe the US legal system is similar to ours, and therefore this version of events you relate is not viable.

When a contractor signs a contract, this contract includes specific clauses which discuss how the contractor can receive orders from the owner. I seriously doubt the contract between BP and the Deep Water Horizon contractor included such a clause, which allowed them to have a simple meeting and say that BP was directly in charge of the equipment. The legal structure would establish that if there was a change of the normal operating forms, then the owner, that is BP, would have to notify the contractor, that is the Deep Water Horizon owner, of its wishes to operate directly, and do so in writing. And because this impacted labour relations as well as insurance and other items, I don't think such a thing can be done as a result of a simple meeting, and it is doubtful the owner would accept.

It seems the BP personnel acted irresponsibly. in a negligent fashion, and the contractor allowed its equipment to be used in such a negligent fashion by following the orders given by the BP personnel. The conclusion I would reach is that most of the fault can be found with the BP personnel, but the rig owner could be subject to fines and possible persecution by the law, because 11 people were killed.

Let me give you a simple example, let us say I contract a crane to lift a steel load, and order the crane owner to lift the load in an unsafe fashion, which may crush some people standing near the site. It is evident I am at fault if I give such an order, but the owner of the crane is also at fault because he follows the order.

I don't think this electronic technician is very relevant in a case involving so many people. The individuals who may face serious questioning by the police will be the Deep Water Horizon captain, because that thing was considered a ship or marine vessel. Others in the command structure under his position may also face some trouble, together with the BP supervisors who were giving orders. There may be quite a few of them arrested and fined, but this may take a few years.

[truedelphi]

19. Your statement - here in bold

I seriously doubt the contract between BP and the Deep Water Horizon contractor included such a clause, which allowed them to have a simple meeting and say that BP was directly in charge of the equipment.

I believe testimony during the Oversight hearings in Congress explained that it was a simple oral agreement - the BP man in charge that day simply told the Deep Horizon People to stand down, or stand aside. That BP was now officially in charge.

And having watched several hours of testimony on C Span, I think that it could be that the Deep Water Horizon people, wanting so much to please their Overlord and Master BP, simply stood aside and let BP rig leader take charge. Just as everyone of the seven or eight who had such authority on the rig, who possessed the authority to shut down the rig, at any point in time when conditions deemed the rig to be operating unsafely, then those people are all culpable.

So from whatever date, some five weeks before the explosion, that the annular on the Blowout Preventer blew apart, any one of these six, seven or eight people could have shut down the rig. My understanding it was the rubber framing of the annular that was no longer intact, and most people on the rig knew about it, though only a handful could have the authority to shut down the rig.

And of course, those testifying took an oath to state the truth.

So they will be facing perjury charges if what they are saying is not true.

Now what you are saying might also be true, with regards to overall liability. In terms of legality. And since this "stand down order" to Deep Water Horizon occurred on the rig that ended up blowing up and being destroyed - even if there was a paper document pertaining to the decision, it no doubt was burned up during the explosions that took down the rig.

As far as the Chief Electronics Technician who was in charge of so much of the electrical systems on board, you should have seen the BP lawyer ramming his arse to the ground.

The BP lawyer got him to admit how this worker saw the major audits and the work orders resulting from those audits as just things on a "do to" list. And the BP lawyer asked if he hadn't read and understood that he had the ability and responsibility to shut down the rig, any time he choose to.

So it was a way of BP saying, "Whoa there! Despite our culture of incompetence, it was your job to make the place safe."

[truedelphi]

20. Also, I mistakenly call the company in partnership

And under the authority of BP, Deep Water Horizon.

Deep Water Hroizon is the name of the rig.

It is TransOcean that was hired by BP top be in charge of the Deep Water Horizon rig.

And it is Mike Williams, TransOcean Chief Electronics Technician.

You can watch some of Mike Williams testimony here:

/www.c-spanvideo.org/program/294728-1

[metapunditedgy]

6. It's "business as usual" until BP execs are in jail. Though I worry that

some "warning-ignoring engineer" will be set up as the scapegoat.

[truedelphi]

10. In Corproate America, that would be par for the course. n/t

[bluedigger]

8. Cool!

Now that BP has determined the individual responsible, we can all go about our business.

[scheming daemons]

11. Sell off their assets and drilling rights to another company, preferably an American one this time

...

[bherrera]

14. There would need to be a law for this move

I suspect there is no law in the books for the USA to carry out this move. They can fine BP, and the individuals can be jailed if found criminally negligent. However, it isn't feasible to nationalize and sell BP's assets, because BP is a British company, and therefore not all of their assets are within the reach of US law. There is also a problem which arises, if the US government were to behave in such a fashion, then foreigners would not invest in the USA. And the USA today is a large debtor nation, with a very high current account deficit. This means it can not survive economically unless it receives aid from the rest of the world (aid it receives in the form of foreigners investing in USA assets and bonds).

The solution for the USA would be to first eliminate its current account deficit, then pay its debt to the world, and then reform its laws. However, it is difficult to achieve as long as it dreams it is an imperial power, with such a large contingent of forces invading and serving as occupation forces elsewhere.

The USA, you see, lives beyond its means, in a very unsustainable fashion. Americans daydream as if they were Imperial Rome of 86 CE, but they are closer to the Byzantium of the year 1282.

[dipsydoodle]

12. Duplicate LBN from Monday

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4522426

I think you may also find that it was a different engineer who refused to testify.

[indepat]

13. Surely managers can't always be expected to correctly interpret data, even when a misinterpretation

would spell an environmental disaster of biblical proportions: after all, no one bats 100, no one is perfect, and since their overall record is good, let's just overlook and forget this one mistake. :sarcasm:

[bherrera]

15. What is a Disaster of Biblical proportions?

I am atheist, although I am from Spain and therefore very familiar with the Catholic Religion and the Bible. But I am curious, in the USA, what is a disaster of Biblical proportions? Do you mean the Deluge?

[indepat]

17. I have no earthly idea: just a rhetorical expression to indicate huge, colossal, life-altering,

possibly planet altering, destruction of wildlife, fish, and other sea creatures, decades of ruin to habitat and eco-system to name a few. :)

[fascisthunter]

18. "I am surprised this was kept so low key by the media."

private corporate interests trump honesty and doing the right thing for its own country.

[superconnected]

21. Why be surprise it was low key - wouldn't BP want it to be lowkey

and wouldn't the corporate media want to assist BP?