MISSEDLINK

• "the principal challenge in deepwater drilling"

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "is to drill a path to the hydrocarbon-filled pay zone in a manner"

 

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "that simultaneously controls these enormous pressures"

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "and avoids fracturing the geologic formation in which the reservoir is found"

 

 

 

 

 

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• "it is a delicate balance"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "in the days leading up to the final cementing process"

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "BP engineers focused heavily on the biggest challenge:"

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "the risk of fracturing the formation and losing returns"

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "John Guide explained that losing returns "was the No. 1 risk""

 

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "the BP team’s concerns led them to place a number of significant constraints on Halliburton’s cementing design"

 

 

 

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• "the first compromise in BP’s plan"

 

 

 

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• "was to limit the circulation of drilling mud through the wellbore before cementing"

 

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "BP circulated approximately 350 barrels of mud before cementing"

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "rather than the 2,760 barrels needed to do a full bottoms up circulation"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "BP compromised again by deciding"

 

 

 

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• "to pump cement down the well at the relatively low rate of 4 barrels or less per minute"

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "BP decided to reduce the risk of lost returns"

 

 

 

 

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• "in exchange for a less-than-optimal rate of cement flow"

 

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "BP made a third compromise"

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "by limiting the volume of cement that Halliburton would pump down the well"

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "more cement means less risk of contamination and less risk that the cement job will be compromised by slight errors in placement"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "finally, in close consultation with Halliburton"

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "BP chose to use "nitrogen foam cement""

 

 

 

 

 

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• "this formula was chosen to lighten the resulting slurry from approximately 16.7 ppg to 14.5 ppg"

 

 

 

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• "thereby reducing the pressure the cement would exert on the fragile formation"

 

 

 

 

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• "on February 10, soon after the Deepwater Horizon began work on the well"

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "Jesse Gagliano asked Halliburton laboratory personnel to run a series of "pilot tests""

 

 

 

 

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• "on the cement blend stored on the Deepwater Horizon that Halliburton planned to use at Macondo"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "to the trained eye"

 

 

 

 

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• "that test showed that the foam slurry design was unstable"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "Halliburton personnel had also conducted"

 

 

 

 

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• "another foam stability test earlier"

 

 

 

 

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• "the earlier test had been conducted under slightly different conditions than the later one"

 

 

 

 

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• "and had failed more severely"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "Halliburton has never reported the results of the test to BP"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "Halliburton conducted another round of tests in mid-April"

 

 

 

 

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• "just before pumping the final cement job"

 

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "the laboratory personnel conducted several tests"

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "including a foam stability test"

 

 

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________

• "the first test Halliburton conducted showed once again"

 

 

 

 

 

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• "that the cement slurry would be unstable"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "Halliburton did not send the results of the final test to BP until April 26"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "six days after the blowout"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "the BOP is designed to contain pressure within the wellbore"

 

 

 

 

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• "and halt an uncontrolled flow of hydrocarbons to the rig"

 

 

 

 

 

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• "the Deepwater Horizon’s BOP"

 

 

 

 

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• "did not succeed in containing the Macondo well"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "even so, the BOP’s automatic mode function"

 

 

 

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• "the "deadman" system"

 

 

 

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• "should have triggered the blind shear ram after the power, communication, and hydraulics connections between the rig and the BOP were cut"

 

 

 

 

 

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• "but the deadman failed too"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "post-incident testing of the two redundant "pods" that control the deadman revealed low battery charges in one pod"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "and defective solenoid valves in the other"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• "the Macondo blowout was the product"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "of several individual missteps and oversights"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "by BP, Halliburton, and Transocean"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "which government regulators lacked the authority"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "the necessary resources"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "and the technical expertise to prevent"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the GULF OIL DISASTER - Report to the President - PDF: LINK ¤ the GULF OIL DISASTER

Halliburton to plead guilty to destroying Evidence - the Guardian: LINK ¤ the GUARDIAN

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• "Halliburton has agreed to plead guilty to destroying evidence related to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill"

 

 

 

 

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• "the government said Halliburton's guilty plea was the third by a company over the spill"

 

 

 

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• "and will require the world's second-largest oilfield services company to pay a maximum US$ 200,000 statutory fine"

 

 

 

 

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• "during an internal probe into the cementing after the blowout"

 

 

 

 

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• "Halliburton ordered workers to destroy computer simulations"

 

 

 

 

 

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• "the disaster caused 11 deaths and triggered the largest US offshore oil spill following the rupture of the Macondo oil well"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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BP to pay US$ 4.5bn Penalty - the Guardian: LINK ¤ the GUARDIAN

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• "BP met its day of reckoning in the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster"

 

 

 

 

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• "when the company admitted guilt on 14 criminal charges"

 

 

 

 

 

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• "and agreed to pay an historic US$ 4.5bn penalty"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• "in connection with the fatal explosion of its rig and the catastrophic oil spill"

 

 

 

 

 

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• "BP is still on the hook for environmental damage to the Gulf of Mexico"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Halliburton vernichtete Beweise nach Öldesaster - der Standard: LINK ¤ der STANDARD

_________________________________________

• "wie das US-Justizministerium mitteilte, gesteht Halliburton"

 

_________________________________________

• "nach der Katastrophe im Jahr 2010 Beweise vernichtet zu haben"

 

 

 

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• "bei den vernichteten Beweisen handelt es sich um Ergebnisse von Computersimulationen nach der Katastrophe"

 

 

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• "Halliburton hat Arbeiter beauftragt, die Unterlagen zu zerstören"

 

 

 

 

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Strafe gegen Transocean wegen Ölpest bestätigt - der Standard: LINK ¤ der STANDARD

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• "ein US-Bundesgericht hat eine wegen der Ölpest im Golf von Mexiko verhängte Strafe"

 

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• "gegen den Schweizer Bohrinselbetreiber Transocean bestätigt"

 

 

 

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• "der Betreiber der Bohrinsel Deepwater Horizon hatte darin eine Strafzahlung in Höhe von 400 Millionen Dollar akzeptiert"

 

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• "Transocean betrieb die Bohrinsel für den britischen Ölkonzern BP"

 

 

 

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• "die Explosion der Deepwater Horizon war eine sinnlose Tragödie"

 

 

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• ""die hätte verhindert werden können", erklärte das Justizministerium"

 

 

 

 

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die Verschmutzer müssen zahlen - Jeffrey Sachs: LINK ¤ der STANDARD

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• "Nigeria ist das Musterbeispiel dafür, wie Konzerne ungestraft die Umwelt schädigen"

 

 

 

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• "seit Jahrzehnten produzieren viele große Ölgesellschaften, u. a. Shell, ExxonMobil und Chevron, Öl im Nigerdelta"

 

 

_________________________________________

• "einem ökologisch fragilen Gebiet aus Sumpfwäldern, Mangroven, flachen Regenwäldern und der Küste vorgelagerten Barriere-Inseln"

 

_________________________________________

• "dieses fruchtbare Gebiet ermöglicht eine bemerkenswerte biologische Vielfalt - oder tat es, bevor die Ölgesellschaften es entdeckten"

 

 

_________________________________________

• "die im Delta tätigen globalen Konzerne haben seit Jahrzehnten ohne Rücksicht auf die Umwelt"

 

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• "Öl auslaufen lassen, Erdgas abgefackelt und die örtlichen Gemeinwesen durch ihr Handeln in Armut gestürzt und vergiftet"

 

 

 

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• "eine Schätzung setzt die Gesamtmenge des in den letzten 50 Jahren ausgetretenen Öls"

 

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• "bei etwa zehn Millionen Barrels (je 159 Liter) an - doppelt so viel wie im Falle von BP"

 

 

 

 

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• "die Sanierung des Nigerdeltas wäre das bestmögliche Beispiel"

 

 

 

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• "für ein neues Zeitalter der Rechenschaftspflicht"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DEEPWATER HORIZON - Wikipedia EN: LINK ¤ DEEPWATER HORIZON