re: BP may not have to pay for "economic damages"

While it was a TO crew running the show, BP had their company man out there that is ultimatly responsible, also Halliburton designed the cement job (with BP approval) and executed the job. They displaced the cement with sea water which was incapable of holding back the well, it should have been displaced with the drilling mud. Of course, I do not know what tests were run (positive and negative pressure test on the plug) and what discussions had taken place after the test were run, if they were. All of this information will come out.

Also, from what I have been able to gather, the rig was changing out mud systems. As a result some of the safety equipment was removed from the mud tanks. Otherwise the crew may have been alerted that they were getting a kick. There were multiple failures that occured for this to happen, and it is impossible to pinpoint one or two events that could have prevented the blowout.

quote:

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They displaced the cement with sea water which was incapable of holding back the well, it should have been displaced with the drilling mud.

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It's standard procedure to displaced the mud. You can't complete a well with mud. Had the cement job held it would not have mattered.