WASHINGTON — A presidential oil spill panel says BP had problems with work by its cement company long before the massive Gulf oil well blowout, which investigations have blamed on cement failure at the bottom of the hole.
BP apparently did not do much, if anything, about it.
A 2007 audit by BP of Halliburton Co.’s work said Halliburton did not have much experience evaluating data. BP also had misgivings about a Halliburton engineer working on the well that blew out last April. On the day of the disaster, BP employees were discussing how to handle his performance, which internally they said was not “cutting it.”
Halliburton has acknowledged it did not test the stability of the final cement mix used, but it blames BP’s well design for the disaster.