May 25th, 2010
07:35 PM ET

Report: BP had 3 indications of trouble in hour before blast

BP had three indications of trouble aboard the doomed drill rig Deepwater Horizon in the hour before the April 20 explosion that sank the offshore platform, congressional investigators reported Tuesday.

Witnesses reported the well was spurting liquid and pressure tests indicated "a very large abnormality" was occurring aboard the rig, according to a memo released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday afternoon.

The memo summarizes preliminary findings of BP's own investigation into the disaster, which left 11 workers dead and uncapped an undersea gusher that has spewed crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico for a month.

The well unexpectedly spouted fluid three times in the 51 minutes before the explosion and pressure on the drill pipe "unexpectedly increased" before the blast, the memo states. In addition, BP's investigation "raised concerns about the maintenance history, modification, inspection, and testing" of blowout preventer, a critical piece of equipment that has failed to shut down the well.

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Filed under: BP • Gulf Coast Oil Spill
soundoff (57 Responses)
  1. UpstateNY, Ernest

    I FEEL ALL YOUR RAGE!!!! I WILL REPEAT MY BLOG TO THOSE WHO HAVENT READ IT ELSEWHERE: US REDNECKS LIKE THINGS EASY TO UNDERSTAND ..SO HERE IT IS...THEY NEED TO PROSECUTE ALL THE STUFFED SHIRTS/EXECUTIVES FROM HALLEBURTON,TRANSOCEAN AND BP "GIVE THEM ALL THE ELECTRIC CHAIR" ALL THE TOP DOGS, THIS WE CALL THE "TOP KILL".TO MAKE SHURE THIS NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN!!!!! LOGICALLY THE NEXT MOVE WOULD BE THE "JUNKSHOT", THIS I DEFINE AS STUFFING THE PIPE WITH THEIR LIFLESS BODIES:" AND ANYONE ELSE THAT CALL AMERICANS MORONS",IE" MR " gmathol."..OR ANY ENGLISHMEN IN SIGHT>>>... SHOOTING THEM DOWN "WITH GREAT FORCE" INTO THE BLOWOUT PREVENTER . THIS I FEEL COULD WORK. WHAT DO YOU THINK????RUFFNECK?????

    May 26, 2010 at 2:00 am | Report abuse |
  2. Dawnsinger

    Wendi (aka BP employee)

    The games up. Constantly spamming BP's website where they can say anything they want, no longer works. People have figured out what's really going on.

    http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/comments_oil_reaches_louisiana_shores.html#comments

    yeah.. we should all go visit the website for the company who in blatant disregard of safety and owned by their greed, has killed the gulf... that will make it all better!

    May 26, 2010 at 3:12 am | Report abuse |
  3. angryinadk

    Wendl is a troll for BP, How much are they paying you? It just shows that your integrity has a low price.

    May 26, 2010 at 6:39 am | Report abuse |
  4. robertsgt40

    Since the blowout, Obama says he's "gonna get tough" on offshore drilling. As evidence, he signed 17 more permits to drill offshore. Way to get butch Obama. I wonder if any of those permits were to BP? Or, will THEY have to submit an environmental impact study...like BP didn't? Follow da money.

    May 26, 2010 at 10:54 am | Report abuse |
  5. robertsgt40

    BTW, they "dispersant BP is using on the spill is the most toxic and least effective available. However, Goldman Sucks has a vested interest in the company that manufactures it. No biggy

    May 26, 2010 at 10:56 am | Report abuse |
  6. apathetic american

    About one week in it was still being called a spill not a leak. BIG DIFFERENCE it was page 17 news and could not be found on morning bs shows i can no longer call those morning news. Lindsay Lohan and Conan O'brien are certainly better material than potentially the end of the earth as we once knew it. Yes folks you heard it here they may never cap this thing because apparently they do not know how!!!!!!!!!

    May 26, 2010 at 1:45 pm | Report abuse |
  7. concerned

    Since it is still dificult to clug the leakage, why not again attach another giant pipe and cement it well. Let that pipe have 100 opennings with a long durable pipe extending from each openning. Then again attach another pipe with 5 openings to each of the 100 pipes. You now have 500 pipes with reduced preasure which are much easier to close if each of the 500 pipes is long enough to enhance reduced pressure from the leakage. The essence is to reduce the pressure coming out of the well before clugging each pipe. BP, you may work around this idea and see what happens. This may be expensive but useful.

    May 30, 2010 at 2:04 am | Report abuse |
  8. john

    bp must work hard.

    May 30, 2010 at 2:38 am | Report abuse |
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