“The More I Learn About This Accident, The More Concerned I Become”
May 12th, 2010 by KarinaToday, the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held their first hearing on the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Coast Oil Spill as part of their ongoing inquiry examining what caused the explosion on the drilling rig, the adequacy of the companies’ safety measures and emergency response, and the status of containment efforts.
Chairman Waxman opened saying, “the more I learn about this accident, the more concerned I become”:
We are here today to begin the process of understanding what went wrong and what we need to do to prevent future catastrophes.
The investigation is at its early stages, but already we have learned some key facts.
BP, one of the world's largest oil companies, assured Congress and the public that it could operate safely in deep water and that a major oil spill was next to impossible. We now know those assurances were wrong.
Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil services companies, says that it had secured the well through a procedure called “cementing” and that the well had passed a key pressure test. But we now know this is an incomplete account. The well did pass positive pressure tests, but there is evidence that it may not have passed crucial negative pressure tests. According to a senior BP official, significant pressure discrepancies were observed in at least two of these tests, which were conducted just hours before the explosion.
Transocean, one of the world's largest operators of drilling rigs, says it has no reason to believe that the rig's failsafe device, called a blowout preventer, was not fully operational. But we have learned from Cameron, the manufacturer of the blowout preventer, that the device had a leak in a crucial hydraulic system and a defectively configured ram.
And we know there are major questions about the effectiveness of BP's response to the spill. The company said it could manage a spill of 250,000 barrels per day. Yet, it is struggling to cope with this blowout, which is releasing only 5,000 to 25,000 barrels per day.
The more I learn about this accident, the more concerned I become. This catastrophe appears to have been caused by a calamitous series of equipment and operational failures. If the largest oil and oil services companies in the world had been more careful, 11 lives might have been saved and our coastlines protected.
It is dangerous to drill for oil a mile below the ocean's surface. An accident can wreak environmental havoc that destroys livelihoods and imperils fish and wildlife. The oil companies make billions of dollars from taking these risks, but they don't bear the full costs when something goes drastically wrong.
Chairman Stupak discussed the issues related to the blowout preventer (which was the “fail safe system” designed to cut off the flow of oil and gas to the rig and prevent oil from spilling) in his opening statement:
Chairman Stupak explained that the committee investigation found that the blowout preventer had multiple problems–it had an apparent significant leak in a key hydraulic system, was modified in unexpected ways, was not powerful enough to do what it was supposed to do (cut through joints in the drill pipe), and that the “deadman switch” (which is supposed to activate the blowout preventer when all else fails), among several possible problems, had a dead battery. The Washington Post illustrates the issues:
Chairman Ed Markey asked the oil executives at the hearing about their response plans and ongoing activities to mitigate the spill saying, “you know, last week you tried to plug the leaks with a huge dome, which failed when it froze up. Now we’re reading about a smaller top hat dome. If that fails, the solution looks increasingly desperate, to plug the leak with a junk shot of golf balls and old tires and knotted ropes, soaking up some of the oil with hair and nylons…top hats, golf balls, tires, hair, nylons–these are not the response actions of companies who are prepared for the worst-case scenario accident and capable of carrying out that response plan.”:
Rep. Bruce Braley questioned Mr. Lamar McKay, Chairman and President of BP America, about a recent NPR report on BP’s efforts to “compel Deepwater Horizon crewmembers to sign forms the day after the accident, stating they suffered no injuries from the incident or the evacuation”:
Braley: They also interviewed on NPR one of your, one of the Deepwater crewmembers, a Christopher Choy, who did sign the Transocean form. He says that he was angry, because he wasn’t able to talk to his physician or attorney. And let me tell you what his experience was.
He saw multiple explosions and flames coming out of the derrick. He saw men pile into one lifeboat while two others burned. He saw his friends and co-workers with burning flesh and broken bones. He lived through this disaster and saw those things that I hope you and I never have to experience in our life.
Can you tell us why he was asked to sign a statement that he had no first-hand or personal knowledge regarding the incident after experiencing that?
Chairman Stupak said that “this is the first of what will certainly be multiple hearings into this disaster.” Stay up to date on the Committee’s investigation web page»
Watch the full hearing:
Read the Committee’s briefing memo»
See more documents from the hearing on the Committee’s hearing page»