.....EPA people who told the BP people to replace the drilling mud with seawater ......
I had heard that the replacement of the drilling mud with seawater occurred but not that the EPA ordered the action. Where did you learn that?
I thought a BP engineer ordered the action over the objections of the drilling or perhaps Haleburton engineers
It was Schlumberger personnel who objected. They were there for logs and knew that the integrity of the shoe was faulty.
They pleaded with BP to stop all plans of displacing the well with Sea Water, pointing out the impending disaster. They also demanded that the well should be immediately shut in and killed while there was still time to stop it.
The BP consultant in charge refused to listen to them and ordered them to carry out their logs as required by the contract. He even went so far as to deny them a flight off the platform and told them they could not leave.
Schlumberger immediately sent out one of their own helo’s to evacuate their personnel. The well lost control 8 hours later.
Ironically, I happen to have met the BP Consultant who caused this disaster and who is mostly to blame for it. He used to be a Drilling Engineer for BP on the North Slope of Alaska in the Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk fields. I also met him on occasion at Endicott Island. Needless to say he is an incredible jerk and always has been.