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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHalliburton Agrees to Plead Guilty to Destruction of Evidence in Connection with Deepwater Horizon
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2013/July/13-crm-850.htmlHalliburton Energy Services Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to destroying evidence in connection with the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Department of Justice announced today. A criminal information charging Halliburton with one count of destruction of evidence was filed today in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Halliburton has signed a cooperation and guilty plea agreement with the government in which Halliburton has agreed to plead guilty and admit its criminal conduct. As part of the plea agreement, Halliburton has further agreed, subject to the courts approval, to pay the maximum-available statutory fine, to be subject to three years of probation and to continue its cooperation in the governments ongoing criminal investigation. Separately, Halliburton made a voluntary contribution of $55 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation that was not conditioned on the courts acceptance of its plea agreement.
According to court documents, on April 20, 2010, while stationed at the Macondo well site in the Gulf of Mexico, the Deepwater Horizon rig experienced an uncontrolled blowout and related explosions and fire, which resulted in the deaths of 11 rig workers and the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Following the blowout, Halliburton conducted its own review of various technical aspects of the wells design and construction. On or about May 3, 2010, Halliburton established an internal working group to examine the Macondo well blowout, including whether the number of centralizers used on the final production casing could have contributed to the blowout. A production casing is a long, heavy metal pipe set across the area of the oil and natural gas reservoir. Centralizers are protruding metal collars affixed at various intervals on the outside of the casing. Use of centralizers can help keep the casing centered in the wellbore away from the surrounding walls as it is lowered and placed in the well. Centralization can be significant to the quality of subsequent cementing around the bottom of the casing. Prior to the blowout, Halliburton had recommended to BP the use of 21 centralizers in the Macondo well. BP opted to use six centralizers instead.
As detailed in the information, in connection with its own internal post-incident examination of the well, in or about May 2010, Halliburton, through its Cementing Technology Director, directed a Senior Program Manager for the Cement Product Line (Program Manager) to run two computer simulations of the Macondo well final cementing job using Halliburtons Displace 3D simulation program to compare the impact of using six versus 21 centralizers. Displace 3D was a next-generation simulation program that was being developed to model fluid interfaces and their movement through the wellbore and annulus of a well. These simulations indicated that there was little difference between using six and 21 centralizers. Program Manager was directed to, and did, destroy these results.
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Halliburton Agrees to Plead Guilty to Destruction of Evidence in Connection with Deepwater Horizon (Original Post)
deminks
Jul 2013
OP
Solly Mack
(90,773 posts)1. K/R
Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)5. THIS SHOULD BE MAJOR HEADLINES!
bvar22
(39,909 posts)2. I'm not happy letting Halliburton "Cop-a-Plea".
This is done to STOP ongoing investigations,
and suppress public exposure that would come with a trial.
Being found Guilty of CRIMINAL destruction of Evidence SHOULD be accompanied by
a Public Perp Walk and pictures in the paper.
TPTB have decided that these crooks will get off easy.
They SHOULD have been made an example.
GiaGiovanni
(1,247 posts)3. Why is this not bigger news?
K & R
Catherina
(35,568 posts)4. No jail for Haliburton? no man hunt? How nice. Whistleblowers and Activists should incorporate n/t