BP Oil Spill

On Tuesday, Apr 27, 2010, the U.S. Government’s Department of Interior and Department of Homeland Security started a Joint Investigation into the cause of the Transocean rig explosion. Their plan is to coordinate the already ongoing investigation of the United States Coast Guard Minerals Management Service. Department of Energy Secretary Ken Salazar and Department of Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano will now have the power to issue subpoenas and hold hearings.

Deepwater Horizon Explosion Cause & Investigation

As you know, Gordon, Elias & Seely, LLP, filed the Kleppinger family’s lawsuit in the 234th Judicial District Court of Harris County, Texas. Another claimant has intervened in that matter and the Court entered a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in the Transocean Deepwater Horizon explosion that took place on April 20, 2010. A TRO is filed for many reasons – one of which would be to preserve evidence or not to cause spoliation of evidence.

Since an ongoing investigation of great magnitude is already being conducted by The Coast Guard, The Minerals Management Service, The Department of the Interior and the Department of Homeland Security on possible causes of the explosion, the law firm of Gordon, Elias & Seely, LLP, is satisfied that the evidence will be safely maintained.

Workers Suffered Great Fear and Mental Anguish

So far, based upon the investigation of Gordon, Elias & Seely, LLP, they have determined that there were a series of explosions prior to the main explosion. This means that the people that may have died in the main explosion suffered great, great fear and mental anguish. This further means that the families of these great workers that gave their lives to Transocean have a very large monetary Jones Act claim for what is called conscious pain and suffering. These are very important facts that apparently have been attempted to be suppressed by Transocean and British Petroleum (BP) that will be revealed in the Coast Guard investigation.

Production casing was being run and cemented at the time of the accident. Once the cementing was done, it was due to be tested for integrity and a cement plug set to abandon the well for later completion as a subsea producer. According to Transocean executive Adrian Rose “undoubtedly abnormal pressure” had accumulated inside the marine riser and as it came up it “expanded rapidly and ignited”, an event known as a blowout.

British Petroleum, BP, the entity that owns the leased land that the Deepwater Horizon was drilling over when it exploded, fought the United States government tooth and nail over whether there should be 3 or 4 back-up systems to actuate and close the blow out preventer. BP prevailed with the blessings of the Bush – Chaney oil advocates and it was only required to have triple redundancy. This is quite different than in Europe. BP spent years battling federal regulators over how many layers of safeguards would be needed to prevent a deepwater well from this type of accident.

One area of immediate concern, industry experts said, was the lack of a remote system that would have allowed workers to clamp shut Deepwater Horizon’s wellhead so it would not continue to gush oil. The rig is now spilling 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico.

In a letter sent last year to the DOI/MMS, BP objected to what it called “extensive, prescriptive regulations” proposed in new rules to toughen safety standards. “We believe industry’s current safety and environmental statistics demonstrate that the voluntary programs…continue to be very successful.”

Read Letter to MMS

Additionally, in March 3, 2000, BP, Transocean and other drillers were specifically warned about BOPs and they were told about two near disasters that would have also resulted in the environmental damage that is being caused in this event.

Read MMS Safety Alert #186

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