'Well control' problems reported in March, BP e-mails show

[Cees Binkhorst]

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'Well control' problems reported in March, BP e-mails show
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/05/31/oil.spill.probe/index.html
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 31, 2010 -- Updated 0616 GMT (1416 HKT)

(CNN) -- BP reported problems controlling the undersea well at the heart
of the largest oil spill in U.S. history and won a delay in testing a
critical piece of equipment in March, according to documents released
Sunday.

"We are in the midst of a well control situation on MC 252 #001 and have
stuck pipe. We are bringing out equipment to begin operations to sever
the drillpipe, plugback the well and bypass," Scherie Douglas, a BP
regulatory advisor, told the district engineer for the U.S. Interior
Department's Minerals Management Service in a March 10 e-mail.

In a follow-up e-mail to the district engineer, Frank Patton, Douglas
reported the company wanted to get a plug set in the well before testing
the blowout preventer, the massive device used to shut down the well in
case of an emergency.

"With the give and take of the well and hole behavior we would feel much
more comfortable getting at least one of the two plugs set in order to
fully secure the well prior to testing BOPs," she wrote.

When Patton told BP he could not delay a test any longer than it took to
bring the well under control, the company won a postponement from David
Trocquet, the MMS district manager in New Orleans, Louisiana, the
documents show. Trocquet ordered BP to make sure its cement plug was set
up and to verify its placement, according to his reply. The messages do
not indicate how long the test was postponed.

The exchange was among the documents released Sunday by leaders of the
House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is looking into the disaster
that killed 11 workers aboard the drilling platform Deepwater Horizon
and uncapped a gusher that is now fouling the northern Gulf of Mexico.
BP has been unable to activate the well's blowout preventer since the
explosion, resulting in up to 19,000 barrels (798,000 gallons) spewing
into the Gulf every day.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week," BP Managing Director Bob Dudley said
those questions are being addressed by an investigation led by the Coast
Guard and the MMS, which oversees offshore oil drilling. BP, rig owner
Transocean Ltd. and oilfield services company Halliburton have blamed
each other for the disaster

"There were issues of well control, signs out there, and there are
strict procedures that are written," Dudley said. Those procedures allow
the rig owner "to walk through well control," he said.

"That's what the investigation will take minute by minute," he said. But
he said the failure of the well's blowout preventer is a "very
troubling" issue that will have repercussions throughout the oil industry.

"It is the piece of equipment that is not expected to fail, and that's
going to have implications for everyone around the world," Dudley said.
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BP's design of the well has also come under scrutiny in the New Orleans
hearings held by MMS and the Coast Guard. BP drilling engineer Mark
Hafle testified Friday that he made "several changes to the casing
designs" to address problems with the well's cement walls and leaking
drilling fluid. But he said the problems had been addressed.

"No one believed there was going to be a safety issue with pumping that
cement job," he said.

Halliburton performed the cementing work on the well, and Halliburton
worker Christopher Haire told the New Orleans hearings Friday that BP
kept changing the dimensions of the well's casing. Meanwhile, BP's
investigation "raised concerns about the maintenance history,
modification, inspection, and testing" of the blowout preventer,
committee chairman Henry Waxman, D-California, reported earlier this month.

The New York Times reported Sunday that BP documents indicated the
company had "serious problems and safety concerns" with the rig's well
casing and blowout preventer for months. Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts
Democrat who leads an Energy and Commerce subcommittee, said he has seen
documents that confirm the Times report.

Other witnesses at congressional hearings into the spill have raised
concerns as well. Stephen Stone, a laborer on the doomed rig, told the
House Judiciary Committee last week that the Transocean crew had to stop
drilling four times in the space of 20 days because of the loss of
drilling "mud" -- "either because the underground formation was
unstable, or because drilling too quickly caused the formation to
crack," he said.

And Doug Brown, the rig's chief mechanic, told the Judiciary Committee
that cuts to Deepwater Horizon's engineering staff left the crew with a
backlog of preventive maintenance to perform. When they complained, he
said, "We were always told, 'We will see what we can do.' "

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