BP AND Halliburton were aware of flaws in the cement used to seal the doomed well in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the lead investigator for the presidential commission on the oil spill.
In a letter to the commission, the investigator, Fred Bartlit, said the cement mixture used on the well did not meet industry standards, and failed three out of four laboratory tests before the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20th last.
Halliburton, which was hired by BP to cement the well, learned of those failures in February, and informed BP on March 8th. But both firms chose to go ahead with the nitrogen foam cement mixture, which was supposed to secure the bottom of the well. “Halliburton (and perhaps BP) should have considered redesigning the foam slurry,” the letter said.
However, Halliburton said it did not believe the foam cement design used on the well caused the incident. “Halliburton believes that significant differences between its internal cement tests and the commission’s test results may be due to differences in the cement materials tested,” the company said.