Plaintiff Attorney: Deepwater Horizon A 'Nightmare Well'

ATLANTA - Lax inspection, construction shortcuts and faulty equipment led to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and the subsequent failure to stop the millions of gallons of oil leaked, according to a plaintiff attorney.

Robin Greenwald of Weitz and Luxenberg in New York, speaking at HB Litigation Conferences' Oil in the Gulf: Litigation & Insurance Coverage Conference here, said problems with the Blow Out Preventer (BOP) on the rig included leaks in the hydraulic system, a failing battery, bad wiring and outdated operating drawings.

"They had problems with this well for a long time," Greenwald said.  "BP and Transocean called it a 'nightmare well.'"

Greenwald said the Deepwater Horizon was inspected only six times in 2008 and missed 16 inspections since January 2005. She said the Mineral Mining Service (MMS) skipped about one-third of the required inspections in the 28 months before the April 20 explosion, and inspections that were done failed to mention repeated gas kicks. Greenwald said MMS reported three weeks before the explosion that the BOP was functioning properly.

The Deepwater Horizon skipped cement tests, did not have a Remote Control Shutoff feature - which is not required in the United States but is used voluntarily by some other oil companies  - had too few centering devices and a single pipe instead of two concentric pipes sealed together, a measure that would have lessened the chance of a spill, Greenwald said.

Although BP listed a containment dome as its proposed method of controlling a spill, it had to build a dome from scratch after the blowout, Greenwald said. Greenwald said the record of events related to the rig show that BP and the other defendants in the oil spill litigation - Halliburton, Cameron International, Anadarko Petroleum and Transocean - put profits ahead of safety.

Greenwald ticked off number of past BP oil spills and environmental fines imposed on the company over the years.

"I think it's time BP learns that is can't run amok in our country and other countries," she said.