[BP Gulf Oil Disaster] ~ Commission warns another disaster could occur

[Exotix]

Key component in busted Gulf well approved in just 90 minutes by U.S. officials.

Commission report warns disaster 'might well recur' without significant reform.


Today

Busted well component approved in just 90 minutes - U.S. news - Environment - msnbc.com


A request by BP to set an "unusually deep cement plug" on the Gulf oil well that subsequently exploded killing 11 people was approved by the then-Minerals Management Service in just 90 minutes, according to a presidential commission report on the disaster.

That decision was one of the nine technical and engineering calls that the commission says — in a 48-page excerpt of its final report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press — increased the risk of a blowout.

The oil spill commission said a string of poor decisions led to technical problems that contributed to the deadly April 20 accident, which led to more than 200 million gallons of oil spewing from BP's well a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico.

"The blowout was not the product of a series of abberational decisions made by a rogue industry or government officials that could not have been anticipated or expected to occur again," the commission concluded.

"Rather, the root causes are systemic, and absent significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, might well recur," it added.




BP hired the firm Halliburton to seal the Gulf well with a temporary cement plug after the exploratory rig found oil.

A number of tests on the cement were carried out in the weeks running up to the disaster.

In October, a government panel said Halliburton had used flawed material to cement the well and knew that it was unstable.

In response to that finding, Halliburton vigorously defended its actions and said BP was responsible for the disaster because it did not perform a key test to determine the integrity of the cement work.

However, Halliburton later acknowledged that it had skipped doing a test on the final formulation of cement.

Four out of 13 preliminary conclusions released by the commission in November noted problems relating to the cement plug.

Cement is an essential barrier to preventing blowouts.




The disaster prompted the Obama administration to introduce a moratorium on deepwater drilling.

In mile-deep seas, work is done in total darkness and near-freezing temperatures .
The water pressure is enough to crush a submarine and the explosive methane gas that likely ignited on the Deepwater Horizon can be much more damaging if not properly controlled.

In the intense pressure and cold of the deep, methane hydrates exist in a slushy, crystalline form. But as methane rockets upward in a blowout, passing into lower-pressure zones, it converts to a gaseous state and gains tremendous force.

The use of heat in cementing, or sealing a well, which was under way prior to the blast, can destabilize methane hydrates at extreme depths.

Halliburton acknowledged as much in an industry presentation in 2009, calling the risks "a challenge to the safety and economics."




Interior Department spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said the presidential commission's report focused on areas in which the agency in charge of offshore drilling has already made improvements.

"The agency has taken unprecedented steps and will continue to make the changes necessary to restore the American people's confidence in the safety and environmental soundness of oil and gas drilling and production on the Outer Continental Shelf, while balancing our nation's important energy needs," Barkoff said in a statement.




Share prices rise

The report already has the companies involved with the blown-out well and Deepwater Horizon rig pointing fingers at each other again.

However, it did not appear to be affecting their market value with London-listed shares in BP trading up 1.3 percent at 506 pence at 3:07 a.m. ET Thursday and those in Swiss-based Transocean up 2.3 percent.




BP, in a statement issued Wednesday, said the report, like its own investigation, found the accident was the result of multiple causes, involving multiple companies.

It said the company was working with regulators "to ensure the lessons learned from Macondo lead to improvements in operations and contractor services in deepwater drilling."

Transocean Ltd., which owned the rig being leased by BP to perform the drilling, said in response to the commission's findings that "the procedures being conducted in the final hours were crafted and directed by BP engineers and approved in advance by federal regulators."

And Halliburton also said it acted at the direction of BP and was "fully indemnified by BP."




The commission underscores its central conclusion with a quote from an e-mail written by BP engineer Brett Cocales on April 16, just days before the disaster.

The e-mail was first unearthed in an investigation conducted by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who at the time led the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

"But, who cares, it's done, end of story, will probably be fine and we'll get a good cement job," Cocales wrote, after he disagreed with BP's decision to use fewer centralizers than recommended.

Centralizers are used to center the pipe to ensure a good cement job. The cement failed at the bottom of the Macondo well, allowing oil and gas to enter it, according to investigations.

The full report is due to the president Jan. 11.




Key questions

But key questions will remain, namely: Why didn't a hulking piece of equipment that sat at the wellhead and was supposed to choke off the flow of oil in the event of a blowout do its job?

Federal investigators analyzing the blowout preventer at a NASA facility in New Orleans aren't expected to finish until February.

The Justice Department continues its own investigation, as does a joint U.S. Coast Guard-Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement panel.

BP, Halliburton and Transocean, the three key companies involved with the well and the rig that exploded, each made individual decisions that increased risks of a blowout but saved significant time or money.




But ultimately, the Deepwater Horizon disaster came down to a single failure, the panel says: management.

When decisions were made, no one was considering the risk they were taking.

The suggestion that the BP disaster may not be an isolated incident runs counter to assurances by the oil industry, which has worked hard to portray the accident as a rare occurrence.

"This clearly was a rare incident," the president of the American Petroleum Institute, Jack Gerard, said Tuesday when his organization published a new report urging Congress and the Obama administration to open more areas to oil and gas drilling.




Outside experts in technological disasters were split by the report's excerpt.

They lauded the commission's focus on organizational and managerial failures instead of blaming the rig workers. But they were divided whether the panel went far enough in criticizing the companies for taking time- and money-saving shortcuts.

University of California at Berkeley engineering professor Bob Bea, who has studied and worked on offshore oil rigs for decades and is an international expert on technological disasters, lauded the panel for "articulating the hows and whys."


"This was a preventable disaster," Bea, who ran a Berkeley investigation into the accident, said.





Video INSIDE: Leaked panel report: Gulf oil spill was avoidable







Other Related content BP and others blamed in massive Gulf Spill inside:

~ Key spill evidence compromised by BP partners?
~ BP official: Effort to shut Gulf well was 'late'
~ Mud work on BP rig made tech uneasy
~ Oil officials given sex, gifts, investigators say





An aerial view of the oil leaked from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead, taken May 6, 2010.

[Peter Pan]

U.S. jobless claims rise 18,000 to 409,000 Economic Report - MarketWatch

U.S. claims for jobless benefits rise 18,000
Applications jump above 400,000 one week after hitting 2-year lowView all Economic Report ›
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Yahoo! Buzz MySpace del.icio.us Reddit LinkedIn Fark StumbleUpon Newsvine |Recommend (2) PrintEmail AlertBy Jeffry Bartash, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of U.S. workers who filed new applications for unemployment benefits rose last week by 18,000 to 409,000, but the level of claims is still sharply lower from just six months ago.


Budget and deficit in perspective
A few stubborn facts complicate the task of bringing federal spending to heel. An honest discussion would have to include accepting restraints on growth in outlays for benefits as well as raising taxes down the line.

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/conga/story/misc/dc.html 120152 Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected initial claims to rise to a seasonally adjusted 400,000. New applications typically spike in the first two weeks of a new year following the holiday season.

Last week’s jobless claims were revised up by 3,000.

The four-week average of new claims, however, fell 3,500 to 410,750, a two-and-a-half-year low. The moving average is considered a more accurate gauge of employment trends because it evens out fluctuations in the weekly data that can give a distorted picture of the labor market.

Claims data can be especially volatile during the holiday season, when government offices close for Christmas and New Year’s. Fewer people show up at the unemployment office and administrative paperwork gets delayed.

In the week of Dec. 18, meanwhile, the number of people who continued to receive benefits under regular state unemployment programs declined by 47,000 to a seasonally adjusted 4.1 million. The four-week average of continuing claims dipped 2,750 to 4.12 million.

Since topping 500,000 last August, new applications for jobless benefits have gradually declined. Two weeks ago, the number of workers who filed new claims fell below 400,000 for the first time since the summer of 2008.

During the last recession new claims peaked at 651,000 in early 2009. Most economists generally believe that claims have to fall below 400,000 on a consistent basis to indicate a faster pace of hiring.

Even in good economic times, however, claims rarely fall below 300,000 as millions of Americans move in and out of the workforce each month.

Other evidence
The gradual decline in claims is one of several pieces of evidence to indicate hiring may be on the mend after a dismal 2010 in which the jobless rate hovered near a 28-year high.

On Wednesday, the payroll-processing firm ADP reported a surprisingly large 297,000 gain in private-sector employment in December. Although ADP itself warned the data might overstate job growth, the firm said evidence suggests an improving labor market. See related story on ADP employment figures.

The federal government will provide another key look at the jobs market on Friday when it releases its monthly U.S. employment report. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch forecast net job growth of 170,000 in December, compared with 39,000 in November.

Many economists revised their forecasts higher after the ADP report. ADP and the government’s payroll report track each other very closely over time, though some months can show large gaps between the two.

The U.S. unemployment rate is seen holding steady at 9.8%, according to the MarketWatch survey. Millions of Americans who lost their jobs during the 2007-2009 still remain out of work and economists say it could take several years for the unemployment rate to fall back to pre-recession levels.

Altogether, 8.77 million people received some kind of state or federal benefits in the week of Dec. 18, on an unadjusted basis. That was down 92,277 from the prior week.

The government paid extended federal benefits to 4.51 million people in the states hurt most by the recession, down about 23,000 from the prior week. Under an extension passed by Congress last month, recipients would be eligible for up to one year of additional federal checks.

Federal payments are tacked on to state benefits, which typically expire after six months.

Jeffry Bartash is a reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.

[ChasC5]

What the truth hurts?

[mrvette]

[QUOTE=Exotix;58549]Key component in busted Gulf well approved in just 90 minutes by U.S. officials.

Commission report warns disaster 'might well recur' without significant reform.



Meanwhile back in the land or reality, NO ONE can prove any SIGNIFICANT losses from this 'spill' that have NOT been .gove caused.....

NO ONE!!!


RS101 frosh year in buzziness, or even law skool....