The BP Deepwater Horizon blowout may have been caused by an unstable cement mix brewed by Halliburton, the company hired to seal the BP leased Macondo oil well. However, information gathered from testimony at the President’s Oil Spill Commission show that Halliburton may have made false claims about the stability of their cement mixture.
“The cement mix's failure to prevent oil and gas from entering the well has been identified by BP and others as one of the causes of the accident. BP and Halliburton decided to use a foam slurry created by injecting nitrogen into cement to secure the bottom of the well, a decision outside experts have criticized,” according to the Huffington Post.
"The panel says that of four tests conducted in February and April by Halliburton, only one – the last – showed the mix would hold. But the results of that single successful test were not shared with BP, and may not have reached Halliburton, before the cement was pumped, according to a letter sent to commissioners Thursday by chief investigative counsel Fred Bartlit."
"BP had in hand at the time of the blowout the results of only one of the tests – a February analysis sent to BP by Halliburton on March 8 that indicated the cement could fail.”
Despite knowledge of the risk of a major blowout, BP chose to move forward with drilling the 5,000 foot deep water well.
Eleven men died when a gas bubble exploded on the deck of the Deepwater Horizon on April 20, 1020. The rig burned for two days before it was thrown into the sea, marking the beginning of the worst oil spill in American history.
During the course of the five month long disaster, 186,480,000 gallons of oil (4.4M barrels) and nearly 2 million gallons of chemical dispersant were poured into the Gulf of Mexico. The long term affects on the ecosystem and human health are still unknown.
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