Alarm Was Disabled Before BP Blast

Wall Street Journal ^ | Russel Gold and Ben Cassleman

[Aliska]

Halliburton? Your source, please

I looked into that some time ago, dug this out of my history, but can't find a timeline other than the 20 hours relating to the final cementing. A couple other sources, don't know about those sites. Also read somewhere that they'd bought Coots and ? not too long before, one of the contractors that put out the well fires in Iraq.

How soon they made their exit and by what means, I don't know. Another poster (can't see the board now) found something on the helicopter exit by another firm.

LAT Gulf oil spill: The Halliburton connection

It's not clear to me whether Halliburton was culpable in any way or not.

[SoothingDave]

That means SLB is a good company to work for. If their employees feel they are in an unsafe condition, the company evacuates them.

I’ve had my bosses tell me the same thing, if you don’t feel things are safe, leave and we will support your decision. As a poster upthread said, that’s a clear signal to the people running things that you disagree with their decisions.

If pulling your team out doesn’t make those left behind think twice, that’s a shame.

[jonrick46]

7. Sea water sent into the main shaft.

“Shortly before the accident, engineers argued about whether to remove heavy drilling mud that acted as a last defense against such catastrophic kicks, and the decision to replace the mud with much lighter seawater won out.”

“The decision was then made to begin withdrawing the drilling mud, a cocktail of clay, water and minerals used to keep downward pressure on the powerful fountain of oil and gas trying to push its way up out of the tapped reservoir”

“On the afternoon of April 20, workers on the Deepwater Horizon rig noticed bits of rubber gurgling up through the pipe that connects the rig to the well. Not a good sign, thought Mike Williams, the chief electronics technician. But he says that his supervisor told him, in effect, no big deal. “