Under pressure from Congress and an inquiring media, Halliburton began a controlled leak of information about its role in the big gulf oil spill today, but things could get quite explosive if they appear to be hiding something.
The WSJ (Russell Gold and Ben Castleman) reported earlier today that Halliburton "didn't respond" to questions about its role in the spill. That's odd, given that, as the Journal reported, an independent expert noted that "the initial likely cause of gas coming to the surface had something to do with the cement," and the fact that Halliburton "was handling the cementing process on the rig."
Picking up on the report, Congressman Henry Waxman sent a letter to Halliburton asking the company to start talking and handing over any relevant documentation.
Perhaps knowing that it couldn't hold out much longer, the firm issued a terse statement this afternoon about the "cementing facts regarding rig incident" , which was hardly illuminating.
The gist:
Clearly there is going to have to be some careful examination of the cementing operation and related engineering questions. As Gold and Casselman report, the MMS says "cementing was a factor in 18 of 39 well blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico over a 14-year period....the single largest factor, ahead of equipment failure and pipe failure."
Moreover, cracks in the integrity of the company's cementing operations have happened before. The Journal reporters say Halliburton was the cementer on a well that suffered a big blowout last August in the Timor Sea, off Australia, where tens of thousands of barrels of oil were released over 10 weeks before it was shut down.
The investigation into that incident "is continuing; Halliburton declined to comment on it."
It's starting to look like the only thing Halliburton can cap tightly is its own mouth.
If they don't start spilling their guts soon, what is already destined to be an ecological disaster will also be a major PR disaster for a company already saddled with the reputation for being a war profiteer.
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I'm a Halliburton employee, I work offshore as a cementer. I think everyone is being a bit sensationalist about this story, there's no evidence yet to say the cement job had anything to do with the disaster . It's always easy to point the finger at Halliburton whenever something nasty happens but I'll tell you, they are honestly one of the safest oilfield services companies I've worked for and I dont agree with Jinxed's earlier comments regarding:
Untrained Employees- We are all very well trained and competent individuals who undergo constant assessment in out abilities and skills.
Inferior products- Believe it or not, Halliburton cementing equipment and products are far superior to many of the competitors.
Incomplete and shoddy jobs - That's just speculative nonsense, our work is continually monitored by clients and management. The cement job was completed sucessfully and pressure tested on the Deepwater horizon.
The cause of the Blowout was down to the failure of the primary pressure control equipment which belongs to Transocean - nothing to do with Halliburton.
I'm sure none of you will be interested in what I say but I'm just an ordinary guy who loves to come home to his family after every trip offshore, if I thought that for one minute this wouldn't happen I wouldn't be working for Halliburton.
However, Halliburton has made it's corner harder to defend by it's long track-record of corrupt and illegal practices, I'm happy to believe your part of the company has nothing to do with those but they make it much harder for anyone not to be suspicious of the company in situations such as this one. Think of it as being bitten in the butt by corporate kama.
1. Untrained employees, or
2. Inferior products (cement this time), or
3. Incomplete or shoddy job (20 hours after "completion" the well blows up?
Why am I not surprised Cheney's company has its fingerprints on every disaster that seems to hit America over and over again?
Looks to me that Haliburton's records for it's weekly safety meetings, concrete test results, inspection records, etc., may be relevant...
You mentioned "yellow journalism" well we no longer have journalist in this country, we have "commentators" who read the talking points handed to them by our Corporate owned politicians. This story will fade just as the others have and in no time we will be at each others throats over Mexicans, abortion, and foreign terrorist coming to take our "stuff".
http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/04/30/fiscal-commission-has-the-knives-out-for-safety-net-spending/
Obama's looking more like Bush every day.
Yer fanned, by the way
BPS plan was to make the US taxpayers pay for any mitigation efforts.
Not hard to understand that nobody will pay any penalty except for the US taxpayer.
"Mission Accomplished."
Added to that was the relentless attack on the civil rights of the citizens of this country and the impoverishment of same.
I firmly believe that Mr. Bush was our first d!ctator...or Cheney was.
By TOM TAULLI
Posted 10:30 AM 04/12/10
But the days of independence have come to an end for Boots & Coots as the company has agreed to sell out to Halliburton (HAL) for $240.4 million. Shareholders will get $1.73 in cash and $1.27 in Halliburton stock for every share of Boots & Coots.
Boots & Coots has two core businesses. First, there is Pressure Control, which involves prevention and risk-control services for oil- and gas-well fires and blowouts. A key to this area was the acquisition of John Wright, which developed sophisticated technologies to measure well integrity.
Next, Boots & Coots has a Well Intervention division, which helps enhance production for oil and gas operators. This business is likely to benefit nicely from the trend toward unconventional resource plays (such as extracting energy from shale). Boots & Coots greatly expanded this division with the acquisitions of Oil States International and StassCo.