Demeur genius A fellow blogger brought up another point. He wanted to know specifications of the Well casing made by Halaburton and used by BP. What I found out was they had no standard. They did opt for a cheaper casing for obvious reasons. The actual specs seem guarded by BP. Even the permit did no specify as far as I can see.
Chris Granger/The Times-Picayune, via Associated Press
Douglas Brown, the Deepwater Horizon’s chief mechanic, testifying. His lawyers, Steve Gordon, seated, and Jeff Seely, conferred.
The concern with the method BP chose, the document said, was that if the cement around the casing pipe did not seal properly, gases could leak all the way to the wellhead, where only a single seal would serve as a barrier.
Using a different type of casing would have provided two barriers, according to the document, which was provided to The New York Times by a Congressional investigator.
Workers from the rig and company officials have said that hours before the explosion, gases were leaking through the cement, which had been set in place by the oil services contractor, Halliburton. Investigators have said these leaks were the likely cause of the explosion.
The approach taken by the company was described as the “best economic case” in the BP document. However, it also carried risks beyond the potential gas leaks, including the possibility that more work would be needed or that there would be delays, the document said.
BP’s decision was “without a doubt a riskier way to go,” said Greg McCormack, director of the Petroleum Extension Service at the University of Texas at Austin. Several other engineers agreed with Mr. McCormack’s assessment of the BP document.
Andrew Gowers, a spokesman for BP, said that there was no industry standard for the casing to be used in deepwater wells and that the approach by the Deepwater Horizon had not been unusual. “BP engineers evaluate various factors for each well to determine the most appropriate casing strategy,” he said.
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