Thread: What did Halliburton do to the Deepwater Horizon drill hole

What did Halliburton do to the Deepwater Horizon drill hole

By: Devvy
July 6, 2010

"This is not an environmental disaster, and I will say that again and again because it is a natural phenomenon," Congressman Don Young [R-Alaska]

Millions of words have already been written about the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon platform, April 20, 2010, and the horrific damage done and that will still come from the massive gushing of oil.

Right off the bat, the world screamed for BP to do something - anything - to stop the oil belching into the beautiful Gulf of Mexico. Hundreds of millions of people around the globe continued to watch this massive disaster unfold. Thousands in the gulf region immediately began to lose their income and as the weeks wore on with one failed attempt after another to shut off the source of the "spill," reality began to really sink in: Our fellow Americans by the thousands will go bankrupt, losing their livelihoods, businesses and their homes. The normal tourist season would not materialize. State and local government began to feel the short term effects and realize the long term destruction to their cities, towns and environment was just beginning. Photos of dead dolphins, bodies bloated with oil, pelicans drenched in black oil, rusty oil clogging marshlands and beaches covered in oil hit the Internet. As I haven't watched ABC, NBC or CBS "news" for more than 30 years, I have no idea their coverage.

BP went into high gear with their public relations machine assuring the world they would return the Gulf of Mexico to its original splendor and make everything right. Their corporation would compensate Americans for their legitimate losses. To say it's been a nightmare by BP from day one is the understatement of the century. Lies flowed like the oil gushing from the damaged drill hole. Payments were and are slow to reach those who desperately need it. From our hard working fishing industry, the family owned gift shop at one of the beaches, hotels, the shop that rents various recreational vehicles, you name it.

The money has been coming from BP, but not fast enough and the long term destruction to all the business owners and those who live in the gulf region could run into several trillion dollars. We just don't know at this time.

Then came the warnings about people getting sick from the dispersant Corexit. The EPA told BP to stop using so much; BP ignored them. I have to wonder if it's because that rig was way out in international waters - some 50 miles?

Then came more photos of huge plumes of oil under the water, driven down by the dispersants which were in turn, making rescue workers sick. Warnings were issued - not by BP - but by independent scientists and those with the knowledge to understand the effects of methane gas and all the other highly toxic chemicals. Local residents all along the gulf began reporting a variety of illnesses. There has been a great deal of talk and some reports about evacuating areas of the gulf, i.e., the Tampa, Florida area. This is so horrible for everyone affected. Having to be forced from their homes is the last thing people need, but if the air is as dangerous as some of the testing has showed, what are they to do?

Literally within a couple of days after the explosion, my email box filled up with all kinds of conspiracy theories and nonsense. Independent web sites shouted headlines that could not be proved, based purely on rank speculation. One web site claims: "The 'disaster' in the Gulf of Mexico is beyond a false flag; it's an illusion. What I'm about to reveal will more than likely go by the wayside, and the charade will continue. The reason for writing this is not for attention, games, or folly, but to expose the biggest scam in the 21st century, and to relieve some aching hearts. There is no need for fear as this is a staged event. I cannot reveal my sources, they do go straight to the top, but hopefully what I write will echo inside of each person reading this as the truth.....Much of the information I present here cannot be easily verified, fast checked, or ever presented as anything, but hearsay, as they are just words of an anonymous online entity."

Where have I read that one before?

The claim made is that the BP disaster is an illusion, a hoax. What really happened is BP drilled into the side of an asphalt volcano. A lot of talk about this asphalt volcano, but doesn't give a location The justification given is this web site. If you read that piece, you'll learn about the Chapopote Knolls which are located in the Southern part of the Gulf of Mexico which encompasses part of the southwest and south by Mexico. It also includes some area by Cuba. The Deepwater Horizon was located 50 miles off shore and no where even close to the Chapopote Knolls.

While asphalt volcanoes are in the Gulf, after a good hour of searching I could fine absolutely no where any data that Deepwater Horizon was located near, by or on an asphalt volcano. Let me just throw this out: Do you really think with all the money involved, like hundreds of millions of dollars, to bring a rig to pumping stage, any oil company would deliberately drill right into one of those volcanos? With all the technology they have to search the ocean beds and do their testing they would be that dumb?



That claim by the above referenced web site is now all over the Internet and repeated as fact. Asphalt volcanoes, what are they? Here is a good web site to get the facts. There was a major discovery of one off the coast near Santa Barbara a few years ago.

One thing that isn't speculation is the pain for the families who lost their loved ones that day. Eleven workers died and to this day, their remains have never been recovered. Because BP has maintained a thick wall of secrecy, we don't even know if any effort was made to recover those bodies. I do know (because I watched the hearings on the boob tube), that BP never contacted the family members of those killed with so much as a phone call. Nothing. I watched one woman, now a widow, tell our current crop of corrupt U.S. Senators during the hearings of her pain; how much she loved her husband and he is gone forever. I darn near started crying my eyes out.

As I always do, I collect news items and try to research the when, who and why every time something horrible happens. It's always depressing. I also believe one should go back to where and when the problem started. In this case, we know that Halliburton worked on that drill hole 20 hours before the explosion. Halliburton is a corrupt corporation that employs thousands of decent, hard working Americans who either don't know how rotten their employer is, don't care OR are those employees who will do anything for a paycheck. Halliburton's reputation is rancid.

Anyway, let's get back to the big question: Was this a real accident (and they do happen), were dangerous short cuts taken or was that drill hole sabotaged? BP leased the Deepwater Horizon platform from Transocean. One thing that needs to be scrutinized are the work orders given to Halliburton for the work done on that drill hole, the pipes and any other scope of work that had been performed right up to the explosion.

May 1, 2010. Spill probe puts Halliburton in spotlight

"Investigators delving into the causes of the massive Gulf oil spill are examining the role of Houston-based Halliburton Co., the giant energy services company that was responsible for cementing the deepwater drill hole, as well as the possible failure of equipment leased to British Petroleum.....

"After an exploration well is drilled, cement slurry is pumped through a steel pipe or casing and out through a check valve at the bottom of the casing. It then travels up the outside of the pipe, sheathing the part of the pipe surrounded by the oil and gas zone. When the cement hardens, it is supposed to prevent oil or gas from leaking into adjacent zones along the pipe.

"As the cement sets, the check valve at the end of the casing prevents any material from flowing back up the pipe. The zone is thus isolated until the company is ready to start production. "The process is tricky. A 2007 study by the U.S. Minerals Management Service found that cementing was the single most-important factor in 18 of 39 well blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico over a 14-year period.

"Halliburton has been accused of performing a poor cement job in the case of a major blowout in the Timor Sea off Australia last August. An investigation is under way. In its statement, the company said: “Halliburton originated oil field cementing and leads the world in effective, efficient delivery of zonal isolation and engineering for the life of the well, conducting thousands of successful well-cementing jobs each year.â€

I also read and hear about the volcano crap. People just seem to throw common sense out the door sometimes.