In April, Chesapeake suspended work on a clutch of natural gas wells in Pennsylvania temporarily after a well blowout sent thousands of gallons of drilling fluid into local waterways.
BP, which had been leasing the rig from Transocean, says the safety device that was supposed to cut oil flow on the ocean floor in the event of a well blowout did not perform its function.
Transocean ( RIG - news - people ), says the safety device that was supposed to cut oil flow on the ocean floor in the event of a well blowout did not perform its function.
Among the company's motivations to settle before a trial would be to avoid the higher end of that range, which U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier could impose if he ruled the company acted with gross negligence before the well blowout on April 10, 2010, that triggered an explosion, killing 11 workers and spawning the nation's worst offshore oil spill.
The remote-controlled submarines are being used by BP in an attempt to activate the well's blowout preventer to choke the flow of oil.
On May 26th BP, the company responsible for the well that Deepwater Horizon had drilled, started to pump heavy drilling mud into the well's blowout preventer, a set of valves on the sea floor.
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Bradford County Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Skip Roupp was quoted as saying that there was a crack in the top part of the well, below the blowout preventer.
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Few knowledgeable people dispute the growing evidence that BP was negligent in the way it bungled the completion of the well and caused this blowout, and that its negligence was "willful and wanton, " terms used in maritime law for centuries to provide for the award of punitive damages against this kind of egregious misconduct.
The cap installed on the top of the well is basically a second blowout preventer.
Development Driller II, the rig drilling a second relief well as a redundancy measure, is completing preparations for its blowout preventer to be used on the Macondo well, while the Development Driller III -- the rig drilling the relief well expected to intercept the main well -- is standing by until that's done.
As a prelude to permanently shutting down the well, crews are trying to withdraw drill pipe hanging below the bottom of the blowout preventer and remove it from the well, so they can then remove the capping stack that's kept oil from leaking since July 15 and replace the old blowout preventer with a new one.
Officials had planned to detach a device called a blowout preventer from the well and replace it with a new one.
"The commission's findings only compound our sense of tragedy because we know now that the blowout of the Macondo well was avoidable, " said commission co-chairman Bob Graham.
Criminal proceedings remain pending for BP supervisors Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, who have been charged with manslaughter for their repeated disregard of abnormally high pressure readings that preceded the blowout of the Macondo well.
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Second, and more importantly, it indicates that BP believes the blowout at the Macondo well has been stopped, that the cap in place now will continue to hold back the gusher until the relief wells can kill it for good.
And why that's important is a whole host of reasons, but particularly we want to judge the integrity for the use of the blowout preventer on the well either for a capping procedure now or in assistance in the capping procedure with the relief well.
Big-government advocates argue that aggressive deficit spending will add jobs, yet the federal blowout mostly benefits big government and well-connected borrowers, not jobs or savers.
Washington (CNN) -- The public may have seen the last video images of the failed blowout preventer from the BP oil well disaster, as authorities expressed possible security concerns.
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After plaintiffs' attorneys rested their case Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ruled there was no evidence that BP's drilling fluids contractor M-I LLC made any decision that led to the blowout of BP's Macondo well.
That starts off with a "junk shot, " in which material such as rubber tires and golf balls is pumped into the shut-off valve, or blowout preventer, that sits atop the well.
The Chinese are well aware of the great American fiscal and monetary blowout, with the 2009 federal budget deficit set to reach 13% of GDP, if we catch a break or two.
The next step will be -- and, again, these tests will be important in determining those next steps -- is the decisions to attempt a kill using this blowout preventer or using this blowout preventer simply to assist the relief well drilling, containment and capping procedures.
Faulty blowout preventers, errors in the management of drilling fluids, a sub-par cementing job, questionable well design, haste it was a confluence of these factors that led to the blowout.
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Subsequently the company rushed the Deepwater Horizon well into production, ignoring danger signals especially related to the blowout preventer, which Tony Hayward now acknowledges must be totally redesigned.
No wonder Anadarko Petroleum, with a 25% stake in the well, has gone on record accusing BP of gross negligence for the blowout.
With that leak sealed, the plan is to inject heavyweight "kill mud" into the lower part of the blowout preventer, followed by cement that will effectively entomb the well.
However, the letter said investigators were unsure if that fourth test was completed before the cement slurry was poured at the Macondo well, and that Halliburton reported the positive result to BP after the blowout.
At that depth, a key piece of equipment is the blowout preventer, which weighs up to 300 tons and caps the well, holding back ultrapressurized oil deep in the Earth.
He said in such a situation, normal procedure would be for the contractor's crew to secure the well by closing off the huge valve sitting on the seabed known as a blowout preventer.
At that depth, a key piece of equipment is the blowout preventer, which weighs up to 300 tons and caps the well, holding back ultrapressurized (15, 000 pounds per square inch) oil deep in the Earth.
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