Emerging oil rig evidence shows lack of regulation

WASHINGTON - The first firm evidence of what likely caused the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil blowout — a devastating sequence of equipment failures — drives home a central unsettling point about America's oil industry: key safety features at tens of thousands of U.S. offshore rigs are barely regulated.

Wednesday's hearings by congressional and administration panels — in Washington and in Louisiana — laid out a checklist of unseen breakdowns on largely unregulated aspects of well safety that appear to have contributed to the April 20 blowout: a leaky cement job, a loose hydraulic fitting, a dead battery.

The trail of problems highlights the reality that, even as the U.S. does more deepwater offshore drilling in a quest for domestic oil, some key safety components are left almost entirely to the discretion of the companies doing the work.

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But the events that unfolded in the hours before the blowout on the Deepwater Horizon rig suggest that much more will ultimately need to be done on the regulatory front.

As the day of the catastrophe got under way on the drilling platform 48 miles off Louisiana, workers were stabilizing the mile-deep exploratory well to mothball until production.

Shortly after midnight, nearly 22 hours before the explosion, contractor Halliburton finished pumping cement into the well.
Heavy cement is used to fill gaps around the drill piping and block any surge of natural gas or oil.

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The cement and metal casing along well walls were then checked. Positive pressure tests indicated they were sound.

But there are no federal standards for the makeup of the crucial cement filler, MMS spokesman David Smith confirmed Wednesday. Government and industry have been working to publish new guidelines later this year, but they will be recommendations, not mandates.

Also Wednesday, a group of Louisiana crab fishermen claimed in a lawsuit that Halliburton — with permission of well owner BP PLC and rig owner Transocean — used a new quick-curing cement mix with nitrogen. It supposedly generates more heat than other recipes and could allow dangerous bursts of methane gas to escape up the well.

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Full article at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37125417/ns/business-oil_and_energy/


Lack of regulation? So at who's hand are there no regulations to cover this?

an argument for tighter regulations. It will expose a lot of deficiencies.

But the oil companies will continue to do what they want. It's not only a matter of regulation, it's a whole new attitude toward energy policy.