Gulf spill investigators wonder why rig workers didn’t raise alarm over test

“The question is why these experienced men out on that rig talked themselves into believing” this negative pressure test was successful, Sean Grimsley, one of Bartlit’s deputy investigators, said at Monday’s fourth and final public meeting of the commission. “None of these men out on the rig wanted to die.”

There is no evidence that any of the crew from BP or rig-owner Transocean alerted any officials onshore about concern over the testing either during or after, Grimsley said. “And that is a process concern we raise to the commission to take under consideration,” he said.

The problem, he said, was there were no industry or federal requirements or guidelines for employing and interpreting negative pressure tests — which look at whether pressure inside a well is affected by things like hydrocarbons leaking in from the outside.

In fact, the rig crew would not have been violating any regulations at all if they had elected not to do the three-hour pressure test they conducted, Grimsley said.

Bartlit and his deputy investigators outlined 13 preliminary conclusions at Monday’s commission meeting, including that the negative pressure test “repeatedly showed that [the] primary cement job had not isolated hydrocarbons.” Despite these results, BP and Transocean rig personnel “treated [the] negative pressure test as a complete success,” according to the preliminary conclusions.

In addition, “temporary abandonment procedures” by BP that were used to seal the well temporarily before production would later begin “introduced additional risk,” the commission’s investigation team has concluded so far.

But Bartlit also stressed another of his conclusions: There is no evidence suggesting that BP, Transocean or Halliburton officials deliberately cut safety corners to save money.

“We studied the hell out of this,” Bartlit said. “We don’t see a person or three people sitting there at a table considering safety and costs and giving up safety for cost,” he said.

BP, Transocean and Halliburton officials are also testifying Monday, but are not under oath.