GOM Blowout - a clearer picture of what happened beginning to form...

This is an incredible interview with one of the rig personnel who survived.  Please take the time to listen.  The interviewer confuses a few concepts, but the rig hand sounds very legit.

http://www.marklevinshow.com/Article.asp?id=1790422&spid=32364

The Irony noted previously was amped up today.  The Minerals Management Service cancelled the high profile SAFE award ceremony at the OTC.  Rumors have it that it was to be given to BP.  In any case, TransOcean, the rig operator for which the gentlemen in the foregoing audio worked had received the MMS's district -level award last year.

Tony Hayward, the BP CEO was in the MSM today saying that it was the rig operator's (TransOcean) fault., the owner of the equipment that failed.  BP accepts responsibility for the cost of the clean-up (that's the law).  Clearly, the lawyers crafted the defining line in the sand.  But, it is not that simple.

Some technical people are questioning the cementing job.  But, the bottom line, even if the cementing job is a unsuccessful, the BOP is the last line of defense with multiple redundant sealing mechanisms.  BOPs do not fail, or at least are not supposed to.  In the interview above, the man states that they set a deep cement plug as well as a plug with a mechanical seal.  However, even if these were to fail for whatever reason, the BOP should not.   It is TransOcean's BOP.  They are tested and re-tested repeatedly - by regulation.

Guess who was the sub-contractor responsible for cementing (their original business, btw, before becoming a conglomerate) Haliburton.  To which the following was in the media today-

Meanwhile, US services giant Halliburton said its crew cemented the Macondo exploration well but never set a cement plug to cap the bore as operations had not yet reached a stage where a final plug was needed.

After declining to clarify its role on the Transocean semi-submersible rig Deepwater Horizon for the past week, Halliburton today said its crew had performed cementing operations on the rig.

"Halliburton had completed the cementing of the final production casing string in accordance with the well design approximately 20 hours prior to the incident," the company said in a release.

"The cement slurry design was consistent with that utilized in other similar applications." 

The following link has some impressive pictures of the events as they have unfolded since the blowout on April 20th 2010.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/oil_spill_approaches_louisiana.html

Definitely worth a look..

Chapeau Estragon!