BP Pressured Rig Worker to Hurry Before Disaster, Father Says
By Joe Carroll and Laurel Brubaker Calkins, Bloomberg
May 28 (Bloomberg) — The highest-ranking crew member to perish aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig warned his family that BP Plc was pressuring him to sacrifice safety for the sake of time and money, his father said.
Jason Anderson, one of 11 rig workers presumed dead after an April 20 explosion and fire sank the Deepwater Horizon and triggered the worst oil spill in U.S. history, told relatives in February and March that BP was urging him to accelerate work on the Macondo well off the Louisiana coast, said his father, Billy Anderson.
On previous wells drilled with the same rig, Jason Anderson, a 35-year-old employee of vessel owner Transocean Ltd., had been able to convince BP representatives to eschew shortcuts that he believed would compromise safety, his father said. But in the eight weeks preceding the disaster, BP stepped up the pressure and overruled safety objections, Billy Anderson, 66, said.
BP Using 30 Year-Old Playbook in Responding to Oil Spill?
Preface for my conservative readers: Yes, I know … Maddow is very liberal. But her claims are either true or they are not true. Let’s focus on her claims. If anyone can refute them, let me know, and I’ll post a retraction.
Rachel Maddow claims that a top kill type maneuver – pumping in cement and saltwater – was tried during the giant 1979 Ixtoc oil spill, but didn’t work.
Maddow also says:
- The precursor to the same company operating the Deepwater Horizon drilling well – Transocean – operated the Ixtoc rig
- The cause of both oil spills was the same: a malfunctioning blowout preventer
- The location of the spill was the same: the Gulf
- The sizes of both spills were massive
- A "top hat" operation was attempted unsuccessfully. During the Ixtoc spill, it was named "Operation Sombrero"
- Chemical dispersants derived from kerosene were used to try to hide the extent of both spills
- A "junk shot" was tried in 1979, using steel balls (it didn’t work)
Maddow says that nothing worked to stop the Ixtoc spill until the relief wells were completed … 10 months later.
In other words, the technology for drilling deeper has progressed, but the technology for stopping oil gushers hasn’t really improved one bit, because all of the funding has gone into drilling deeper, and none of the funding has gone into increasing safety.
