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BP says it hasn't been 'cutting corners'
WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- A BP official said the company had not been "cutting corners" by using an oil well casing despite internal warnings it could fail at 5,000 feet underwater.
Robert Dudley, BP's managing director, was responding to a report in The New York Times Sunday that showed BP acknowledged concerns about the metal well casing and the failed blowout preventer 11 months ago, much earlier than the company told Congress.
The Times also reported internal documents, reports, engineering studies and e-mail messages show that in March, BP struggled with a loss of "well control."
Asked about the documents on ABC's "This Week," Dudley said: "Cutting corners is not the way I describe how we do our business, and the men that work out on those rigs ... have to live out there, and that's what they focus on. So I wouldn't call it cutting corners in any way."
He said the casing designs used in the Gulf of Mexico had been used in other places. But in June, the Times reported, BP engineers expressed concerns the metal casing the company wanted to, and ultimately did, use could collapse under high pressure.
"This would certainly be a worst-case scenario," Mark E. Hafle, a senior drilling engineer at BP, warned in an internal report. "However, I have seen it happen so know it can occur."
Dudley said BP is investigating the casing, the failed blowout preventer and why the well was not closed after the March warning.
Meanwhile, he said, the company is putting in place a containment cap in the latest attempt to contain and collect the oil. But stopping the oil leak permanently probably will come only after completion of a relief well by late August, Dudley said.
"The relief well at the end of August is certainly the end, the end point on this game," he said.
WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- A BP official said the company had not been "cutting corners" by using an oil well casing despite internal warnings it could fail at 5,000 feet underwater.
Robert Dudley, BP's managing director, was responding to a report in The New York Times Sunday that showed BP acknowledged concerns about the metal well casing and the failed blowout preventer 11 months ago, much earlier than the company told Congress.
The Times also reported internal documents, reports, engineering studies and e-mail messages show that in March, BP struggled with a loss of "well control."
Asked about the documents on ABC's "This Week," Dudley said: "Cutting corners is not the way I describe how we do our business, and the men that work out on those rigs ... have to live out there, and that's what they focus on. So I wouldn't call it cutting corners in any way."
He said the casing designs used in the Gulf of Mexico had been used in other places. But in June, the Times reported, BP engineers expressed concerns the metal casing the company wanted to, and ultimately did, use could collapse under high pressure.
"This would certainly be a worst-case scenario," Mark E. Hafle, a senior drilling engineer at BP, warned in an internal report. "However, I have seen it happen so know it can occur."
Dudley said BP is investigating the casing, the failed blowout preventer and why the well was not closed after the March warning.
Meanwhile, he said, the company is putting in place a containment cap in the latest attempt to contain and collect the oil. But stopping the oil leak permanently probably will come only after completion of a relief well by late August, Dudley said.
"The relief well at the end of August is certainly the end, the end point on this game," he said.