BP says it didn’t hide information about Gulf well blowout
By Margaret Cronin Fisk and Laurel Brubaker Calkins
20 September 2011 BP Plc (BP) said it didn’t hide information about a possibly dangerous condition in the Macondo oil well before or after it blew out in April 2010, killing 11 people and triggering the biggest U.S. offshore oil spill. BP personnel determined that a sand layer above the target zone was water-bearing rather than a gas-containing “hydrocarbon zone” and provided supporting data to its well partners before the blowout, the company said yesterday in a court filing. BP investigators reported publicly after the explosion that this may have been gas-containing sand, while determining it wasn’t a cause of the incident, the company said. A Halliburton Co. (HAL) unit that provided cementing services for the well asked a federal court in New Orleans Sept. 1 to allow it to add a claim of fraud in its lawsuit against BP over the spill, alleging the hydrocarbon zone was concealed. Halliburton shouldn’t be allowed to add the new claim, BP said in its filing. “There is no evidence that BP held the pre-incident belief that the sand was hydrocarbon-bearing, or that it had any intent to conceal,” the company said. BP distributed information about the shallower sand within days of the incident, it said. “Had BP disclosed the higher hydrocarbon zone in April 2010, Halliburton would not have pumped the cement program unless and until changes were made to the cement program, changes that likely would have required BP to redesign the production casing, ”Tara Mullee Agard, a spokeswoman for Houston-based Halliburton, said today by e-mail. The Macondo blowout and spill led to hundreds of lawsuits against London-based BP and its partners and contractors. The lawsuits over economic losses and personal injuries are combined before U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans. Also sued were Transocean Ltd. (RIG), the Switzerland-based owner and operator of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded; Halliburton; Cameron International Corp. (CAM), which provided blowout-prevention equipment; and BP’s minority partners in the well, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) and Mitsui & Co.’s Moex Offshore LLC unit. Halliburton alleges slander and business disparagement in a separate suit against BP in Houston federal court, contending that the oil company “knew or should have known about an additional hydrocarbon zone in the well that BP failed to disclose” before Halliburton designed the cement program for the well. […]
