Gulf coast oil spill

[Flickster]

Originally Posted by tw

I should have said Federal investigation - not Congressional.

Cementing is a process where the cement must be carefully measured, mixed, and inserted. If cement remains, then a serious and dangerous problem exists. Not known is what Haliburton is supposed to do next.

Apparently the explosion happened two hours after Haliburton applied their cement. Since Haliburton is not talking, almost nothing about the cement process is known.

Alarms should sound if a blowout is detected. None did. Question as to whether those alarms were disabled or if Haliburton did something to subvert alarms and the Blow Out Protector are unknown.

Rig only does something if connected to a ship. No ship means oils flows uncollected. Storms such as last week means a ship may not be able to remain connected.

There are many different types of rigs and surface processing vessels. From what I'm reading on the spill containment/capture, this will go directly to a surface processing vessel, where the oil & water will be separated. My guess would be an FPSO or the like.

Latest report I'm seeing from the AP, the blame is being placed on a bubble of methane, which could also point to some issues with the cementing process.