SATURDAY, JULY 24, 2010


Oil spills in gulf nothing new


spills from A1


Management Service, now known as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and En- forcement. Moreover, in at least one key in- stance, the official statistics un- derstate the actual quantities of oil that have leaked into the Gulf of Mexico. MMS statistics say that a 1970 blowout on a Shell Oil well that killed four people triggered a spill of 53,000 barrels. But Robert Bea, a University of California, Berkeley professor who at that time worked for Shell tracking the oil spill, says that the spill was 10 times that size and contaminated shorelines on the Yucatan Penin- sula as well as the U.S. Gulf Coast. “I see the numbers, and I shrug


my shoulders,” said Bea, who con- tributed to a report issued last week on the April 20 Deepwater Horizon accident. The 1970 Shell blowout happened on a produc- tion platform, he notes. “We knew what the production rates were,” he said. Today regulators rely heavily on company estimates, although some environmentalists fear that the spill size might be underesti- mated. The industry’s track record is a crucial issue. On March 31, Presi- dent Obama cited advances in off- shore drilling technology as a key reason for his willingness to open up new offshore areas to explora- tion and production. Now, the oil and gas industry is


trying to use its earlier record to persuade Obama to lift a tempo- rary moratorium and to convince the public that companies can continue offshore drilling without a similar incident. “The oil industry has drilled 42,000 wells in the Gulf of Mexico, and this is the first time an in- cident of this magnitude has hap- pened,” said the American Petro- leum Institute’s president, Jack Gerard, who has been urging Con- gress to avoid imposing tough new regulations. The BP oil spill is the biggest


ever, but MMS records tell a more complicated story. Performance had been improving but from a poor baseline.


One big spill was 160,638 bar- rels in 1967 when an anchor tore a hole in a corroded pipeline operat- ed by Humble Oil, a unit of Exxon; it leaked for 13 days. In 1969, a blowout on a Union Oil well spilled 80,000 barrels, killing 4,000 birds and seeping for four years after being plugged. In 1974, a Pennzoil pipeline break spilled 19,833 barrels probably because an anchor was dragged across the submerged line. Another anchor tore open an Amoco pipeline in


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From Page One


A5


Alarm system on rig was disabled, technician testifies


by David S. Hilzenrath


kenner, la. — Long before an eruption of gas turned the Deep- water Horizon oil rig into a fire- ball, an alarm system designed to automatically alert the crew and prevent combustible gases from reaching potential sources of ignition had been deliberately disabled, the former chief elec- tronics technician on the rig tes- tified Friday. Michael Williams, a former


Marine who survived the April 20 inferno by jumping from the burning rig, told a federal panel probing the disaster that other critical systems had been func- tioning unreliably in the run-up to the blowout.


ASSOCIATED PRESS


Workers used straw in February 1969 to absorb oil from the beach at Santa Barbara, Calif., after an offshore well leak. The Union Oil incident helped give rise to the modern environmental movement.


1988, spilling 15,576 barrels. A Shell pipeline leak in 1990, discov- ered when a helicopter noticed a heavy oil slick 25 miles by 15 miles, spilled 14,423 barrels. One frequent assertion among some oil executives and lawmak- ers is that technology has ad- vanced since then. They hold up hurricanes Rita and Katrina as evidence that offshore exploration rigs and production platforms can weather the worst Mother Nature can heave at them.


“I think people are reassured


that not a drop of oil was spilled during Katrina or Rita,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in 2008. “Those rigs in the gulf, there was not a single in- cident of spillage that anyone re- ported.”


But while the overwhelming


majority of safety valves did work during the two hurricanes, the MMS reported that there were five modest-sized spills, each between 1,000 and 2,000 barrels. There were also 125 small spills, many from riser pipes or storage tanks on platforms. Altogether, they added up to 16,302 barrels, almost a quarter as big as the 1969 spill off Santa Barbara, Calif., that helped give rise to the modern en- vironmental movement. In recent years, spills persisted


at a more modest rate. From 2006 through 2009, there were 33 spills of more than 50 barrels each. Maintaining that performance could be difficult moving forward. As the gulf infrastructure ex- pands, it is harder to keep track of what’s happening far below the sea. Bea notes that there are 35,000 miles of pipeline on the


on washingtonpost.com The oil spill saga


Watch the engineer’s testimony; see how


residents and wildlife are faring; check out the spillcam. washingtonpost.com/oilspill


gulf’s outer continental shelf and that “those pipelines traverse a very, very interesting series of haz- ardous environments.” They also require maintenance, and monitoring can be difficult. In 2007, after receiving reports of five small oil slicks, regulators got word of a larger one covering 30 miles by 6 miles. They discovered that the oil was leaking from a 30- year-old 41


⁄2


damage to the pipeline was not caused by corrosion, but by me- chanical damage, such as an an- chor dragging over the pipeline during Hurricane Katrina,” the company said in an e-mail to The Washington Post. Bea said that the issue of safety


in offshore drilling is similar to safety issues for airplanes or aspi- rin: There is a “line of acceptabili- ty” balancing risk and conse- quences. “The thing that is con- cerning is that we continue to work close to that line,” Bea said. “Because of airline regulation, we get in an airliner with a level of comfort. I don’t have that same level of comfort when I go out to these offshore activities.” mufsons@washpost.com


-inch pipelines owned


by Lafayette, La.-based Stone En- ergy lying under more than 300 feet of water. At first Stone denied it had a problem, but divers found four holes in a 100-foot-long sec- tion on the seafloor. A later MMS probe revealed


that Stone had failed to do annual checkups of cathodes designed to combat pipeline corrosion and had not done vital maintenance even after being ordered by reg- ulators to do so. Divers found that anodes, also part of the anti-corro- sion mechanism, “were 100 per- cent depleted,” the MMS said. Stone’s reply addressed the question of negligence, but it’s hardly reassuring about the safety of offshore infrastructure. The company said that underwater ul- trasonic wall-thickness readings taken by divers showed that “this damage was not due to corrosion.” “Our conclusion is that the


Staff writer Marc Kaufman contributed to this report.


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Williams told the panel that he understood that the rig had been operating with the gas alarm sys- tem in “inhibited” mode for a year to prevent false alarms from disturbing the crew. Williams said that when he discovered that the alarm system was inhibited, he reported it to supervisors. He said they in- formed him that orders were to keep it that way. If the safety system was dis- abled, it would not have been un- usual. Records of federal en- forcement actions reviewed by The Washington Post show that, in case after case, rig operators paid fines for allegedly bypass- ing safety systems that could im- pede routine operations. The Deepwater Horizon was owned by Transocean, which em- ploys Williams, and was operat- ing under contract to BP. Transocean said in a state- ment that the rig’s general alarm system was controlled by a per- son on the bridge “to prevent the general alarm from sounding un- necessarily.” Transocean provid- ed statements taken from crew members saying they heard alarms, and it also released part of an April inspection report that found “no [gas] detectors either in fault or inhibited condition, other than units being serviced.” Williams testified that a com- puter used to monitor and con- trol drilling operations intermit- tently froze — a problem that be- came known as “the blue screen of death.” Despite attempted re- pairs, the issue remained un- resolved at the time of the blow- out, he said.


Earlier in the drilling opera- tion, one of the panels that con- trolled the blowout preventer — the last line of defense against a gusher — had been placed in by- pass mode to work around a mal- function, Williams said. He said a colleague told him


that an inspection of the rig in the spring, shortly before the dis-


Tenn. Republican lawmaker talks of secession A Tennessee congressman sug-


gested Friday that states might have to “consider separation from this government” if the fed- eral government does not change its approach.


Republican Rep. Zack Wamp brought up the idea of secession in an interview Friday with Hot- line on Call as he encouraged a change at the federal level.


“States are tired of being run


over” by federal mandates, Wamp said, and praised Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who raised the topic of secession in 2009 af- ter an anti-tax “tea party” rally. “Patriots like Rick Perry have


talked about these issues be- cause the federal government is putting us in an untenable posi- tion at the state level,” Wamp


Sen. Coburn cooperating with federal investigation of Ensign


by Carol D. Leonnig Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said


Friday that he has provided infor- mation to federal authorities in- vestigating whether Sen. John En- sign (R-Nev.) broke the law in try- ing to keep secret his affair with a part-time staff member. Before Ensign publicly admit- ted the adulterous relationship last June, Coburn had been a key behind-the-scenes counselor to Ensign. Coburn had urged his friend to end the affair with Cyn- thia Hampton and later tried to help him mediate the tension when her husband, a senior aide to the Nevada senator, confronted Ensign about the affair in late 2008. Investigators are looking into


whether Ensign then tried to help Doug Hampton get lobbying work, through meetings with key donors and administration offi- cials. Such actions could violate federal laws and congressional rules that require departing con- gressional staff members to avoid


lobbying for a year. The Justice Department has issued subpoe- nas seeking information to more than five Las Vegas companies tied to Ensign. Ensign’s parents also made $96,000 in payments to the Hamptons, funds the senator may have been required to report un- der federal disclosure laws as part of a severance package. On Friday, Coburn confirmed


that the Justice Department had requested copies of particular e- mail correspondence and said he was voluntarily cooperating with the probe and was not served with a subpoena. Coburn did not dis- close the nature of the corre- spondence but said only a small number of his e-mails met the prosecutors’ specific request. “Dr. Coburn has also said he will gladly cooperate with any in- quiry into the matter,” Coburn spokesman John Hart said. “He went above and beyond DOJ’s re- quest.”


Ensign’s attorney, Robert Walk-


er, declined to comment on the development.


SF


told Hotline. Wamp, who is running for gov- ernor of Tennessee, didn’t go so far as to say he would push for se- cession if elected. Instead, he blamed Washington for putting voters and state legislatures in a difficult spot and vowed to pres- sure Democrats through other means, especially “the leverage that other governors have under


When asked last year about the


affair, Coburn originally denied knowing about it, then he balked at discussing his conversations with Ensign by asserting they were “privileged,” due to his posi- tion as an ordained deacon and a doctor. (Coburn is an obstetri- cian.) He later retreated from that position.


Coburn told ABC News in No- vember that he did nothing wrong in trying to mediate. “Look, my whole goal in this thing was to bring two families to a closure of a very painful epi- sode,” he said. “And there’s no question that Doug called me and said, ‘Will you talk to John about solving a prob- lem?’ And so I called John Ensign and said, ‘Do you want me to talk to him?’ [Ensign] said, ‘Yes.’ ” leonnigc@washpost.com


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the 10th Amendment.” Wamp’s rivals in the Tennessee


primary refused to stand with their fellow Republican when it came to secession. Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey called the remarks another example of Wamp’s “over-the-top tempera- ment and overheated, sometimes crazy rhetoric.”


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U.S. MEX. SOURCE: National Hurricane Center Okla. 2 p.m Monday Miss. Texas Houston


2 p.m Sunday La.


Galveston New Orleans Oil spill site Gulf of Mexico Key West Miami Nassau BAHAMAS Ala. Mobile Pensacola 2 p.m Saturday Tampa Fla.


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0 MILES LARIS KARKLIS/THE WASHINGTON POST 200 Ga. Ark. Tenn.


aster, found extensive mainte- nance problems. The colleague said “that we were going to be in the shipyard a lot longer than an- ticipated because the rig was in very bad condition,” Williams testified. The Coast Guard and the Bu- reau of Ocean Energy Manage- ment, Regulation and Enforce- ment, until recently called the Minerals Management Service, are conducting the hearing. Tes- timony continued before the panel Friday even as the left- overs of Tropical Storm Bonnie blew toward the spill site. Fore- casters predicted that the storm, which had lessened to a tropical depression, would gain strength before it was over the site about midday Saturday. Retired Coast Guard Adm.


Thad Allen said two control ships monitoring the newly capped well would try to ride out the storm. All other vessels con- nected to the spill effort have headed for shelter. In other testimony Friday, an


expert consultant to the investi- gating board said that based on available data, it appeared that the Deepwater Horizon conduct- ed four faulty integrity tests on the well in the hours before the blowout. The fact that the test was ap- parently attempted four times indicates that someone on the rig was concerned, said the con- sultant, John R. Smith, an associ- ate professor of petroleum engi- neering at Louisiana State Uni- versity. “None of the four tests were an acceptable test,” Smith said. Apparently, when BP conclud- ed the tests, hydrocarbons were already flowing up the well, said Smith, an industry veteran. Going on the assumption that


at least one of the tests was suc- cessful, BP prepared to wrap up its work on the well by removing heavy drilling fluid from the hole. The fluid serves as a damper on the well, and removing it eliminated a counterweight to a potential gusher. A lawyer for BP, Richard God-


frey, added to the picture by reading from a September 2009 BP audit during his questioning of Williams. He read a list of findings that included problems with bilge pumps, cooling pumps, an alarm system related to the rig’s hospital, and a panel on the bridge. Altogether, the September au- dit identified 390 issues that needed addressing, Godfrey said.


hilzenrath@washpost.com


Staff writer Joel Achenbach contributed to this report.


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