This is bad news for BP. But even this does not compare to the negligence that will be uncovered as to why the well exploded in the first place.

BP executive says blowout preventer was not connected properly

By David S. Hilzenrath
Wednesday, August 25, 2010; 1:56 PM

As BP and Transocean officials struggled to contain the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico, they discovered that the plumbing on the blowout preventer was connected improperly, a BP executive testified Wednesday.

"It would mean that the pipe rams could not be closed," said Harry Thierens, BP executive vice president for drilling and completions. "I was frankly astonished that this could have happened."

Thierens was testifying in Houston before a federal panel investigating the April 22 disaster.

Thierens said a plumbing line that was supposed to be connected to one of the rams meant to cut off a runaway well was actually connected to a test ram that would be of no use in containing the well.

"It would mean that test ram would close in an emergency, but it would not be capable of withstanding pressure from below," Thierens said.

Some time after the plumbing problem was discovered, technicians used a work-around method to try to activate the proper ram. That effort also failed to contain the well.

The blowout preventer is a stack of heavy equipment that sits on the bottom of the ocean and serves as the last line of defense against a gusher. The preventer on BP's Macondo well failed, leading to months of contamination in the gulf.

BP owned the well and directed the drilling operation. The rig and the blowout preventer were under contract from Transocean. The two companies have been trying to deflect responsibility to each other.

A log kept by Thierens recorded his bewilderment that the blowout preventer had been modified and noted that he had immediately met with Transocean engineer Billy Stringfellow and others working to choke the well:

"When I learned this news I lost all faith in this BOP stack plumbing. Billy Stringfellow, clearly emotional tole me 'this stack is plumbed wrong'," Thierens wrote.

Stringfellow is scheduled to testify later Wednesday.

Staff writer Joel Achenbach also contributed to this report.

WashingtonPost Article

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"Astonishing" mistake found in Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer

A BP executive who oversaw efforts to seal off the gushing Macondo well by intervening in the failed blowout preventer testified today about a shocking discovery made in the giant subsea valve stack more than 10 days after the deadly April 20 well blowout.

Harry Thierens, a BP vice president for drilling and completions operations, said his team learned on May 1 there was an error in the plumbing on the stack that meant that access ports were swapped for two sets of well-sealing valves, the middle pipe rams and the test rams.

In the days following the blowout, robot submarines had been trying to activate the stronger middle pipe rams by using a "hot stab" procedure, but in reality the port was tied to the weaker test rams on the 450-ton stack sitting atop the well head on the sea floor.

"To find something like this was quite emotional," Thierens told a joint investigation panel of the Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which is holding hearings this week in Houston. "I was quite frankly astonished that this could have happened."

"It would mean that the pipe rams could not be closed, that the test rams would be closed in an emergency, but it would not be capable of holding pressures from below," Thierens testified.

Thierens testified earlier that, following the accident, there was confusion about modifications Transocean had made to the BOP and that a delay in accessing technical drawings slowed the response.

"When I heard this news, I lost all faith in this BOP stack," Thierens said.