5 More Questions For BP

US Coast Guard

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Today the Energy and Commerce Committee is grilling CEOs from the nation’s top five oil companies, to be followed by even more smoke and fire on Thursday when BP CEO Tony Hayward takes the hot seat for the first time. The Committee, led by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), has honed in on five “serious questions” about potential screw-ups aboard the rig. But a story that I’ve published today suggests that Congressional investigators should add a sixth line of questioning: Did BP’s rig pass a key safety test—or not?

Spokesman for BP, Halliburton, and Transocean won’t talk to me. If I had the chance, here’s what I’d ask them:

  1. BP has given conflicting statements about how many negative pressure tests—key procedures that test the integrity of the well casings—were performed aboard the Deepwater Horizon before the explosion. At times, the company has suggested that two tests were performed, and at other times that three or more “pressure tests” were performed. So what is BP’s official position?
  2. Halliburton service supervisor Christopher Haire has testified that workers on the rig floor, where the platform’s drilling equipment was set up, told him that a third test was performed. But Haire’s attorney says his pressure gauges indicated that a third test never took place. This suggests that a third test might have been done improperly or even fabricated. If BP still maintains that a third test was performed, what evidence does it have that a third test took place?
  3. Halliburton has released results for only two negative pressure tests. What was the result of the third test?
  4. Were the results of the negative pressure tests approved by BP’s US headquarters in Houston? If so, why were they approved when BP has acknowledged that the results of the first two tests were unsatisfactory?
  5. Several rig workers have described a confrontation between Transocean’s rig installation manager, Jimmy Harrell, and BP officials aboard the rig on the day of the disaster. While Harrell has downplayed the conflict, other workers have suggested that BP was ignoring his safety concerns. Exactly what transpired during this conflict?

 

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate