Tweet
If there’s one thing Halliburton doesn’t need, it’s a blow to their reputation. They had such a sterling record up to now!
Halliburton knew weeks before the fatal explosion of the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico that the cement mixture they planned to use to seal the bottom of the well was unstable but still went ahead with the job, the presidential commission investigating the accident said on Thursday.
In the first official finding of responsibility for the blowout, which killed 11 workers and led to the largest offshore oil spill in American history, the commission staff determined that Halliburton had conducted three laboratory tests that indicated that the cement mixture did not meet industry standards.
The result of at least one of those tests was given on March 8 to BP, which failed to act upon it, the panel’s lead investigator, Fred H. Bartlit Jr., said in a letter delivered to the commissioners on Thursday.
Another Halliburton cement test, carried out about a week before the blowout of the well on April 20, also found the mixture to be unstable, yet those findings were never sent to BP, Mr. Bartlit found.
Whether or not this could lead to criminal negligence charges is unclear. But it certainly could have a bearing on the civil penalties. Halliburton and the other companies involved, like Transocean, have been pointing the finger at BP, and vice versa. At stake is responsibility for the tens in billions in expected fines for violating the Clean Water Act and other environmental statutes, as well as claims from individuals seeking damages. That claims process sounds like it’s going about as well as HAMP, by the way. But for months now, the question has been who will pay. This seems like incontrovertible evidence that Halliburton shares at least some of the liability. However, not only may their contract keep them safe, but the addition of multiple actors’ responsibility for the spill may lower the ultimate fine.
Halliburton’s contract makes it unlikely that Halliburton will face much liability for the disaster, said Matthew Conlan, an analyst for Wells Fargo Securities. But the latest revelations could hurt Halliburton’s reputation, he added. “The integrity of their product is being questioned and the integrity of their advice is being questioned.”
BP could benefit if investigators determine that Halliburton’s cement design was faulty, experts said.
Under federal pollution laws, BP will face much higher penalties if it is found to have been “grossly negligent” in the spill. Such a finding is less likely if several different companies share the blame.
Certainly the markets believe that Halliburton will take a hit, either out of the pocketbook or to their reputation; they tanked in trading yesterday, down 8%. Couldn’t happen to a bigger caricature of faceless corporatism. But the fact that two companies failing means a smaller overall fine than one company failing suggests a real problem with the law.
The lead investigator’s law firm has done work for Halliburton prior to 2005, incidentally. Those corporate tentacles are long and widespread.
20 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL News Desk
Scarecrow and Cynthia were on to this six months ago; nice the rest of the media is catching up.
What is being said here? That the regulation would authorize a fine only to the general entity which is BP? That Halliburton was a sub for BP and not regulated by the feds? That BP was in contract with Halliburton and although Halliburton probably agreed to indemnify BP, if BP doesn’t have too much liability, then there wouldn’t be much indemnity to pay?
I don’t understand. I have not actually studied the law but this is absolutely sickening. Not that I am the only one, but I am completely sick to death of these corporations, banks and all the rest who simply run rough shod over us with the most permissive, if at all, regulation at the fed or state level.
there won’t be, obama does exactly what cheney wants him to do
however their might be some light shining through, if bp knows their how to protect their bottom line, and I am pretty sure they do, and if they want to salvage their reputation and I’m pretty sure they do, the path is clear
BP HAS TO SUE THE CRAP OUT OF HALIBURTON
they need to reclaim all expenses PLUS ALL REVENUE, plus lost reputation and lost business, PLUS PUNITIVE HARM
this is a no brainer for them, let’s hope they have someone on staff who realizes it
ps
why isn’t edit fixed yet?
all they have to do is change the time out for edit, this seems kind of simple
No doubt we’ll be “looking forward, not back” on this one too….
Mine is only speculation of course but it occurs to me that they may want to wait till the weekend to take the site down again and fix the bugs that have been discovered since the reformat launch. Only guessing though. :)
Appropriate criminal charges, civil law suits and monetary awards commensurate to the death and destruction could (should) break the back of both corporations.
I’ve heard that courts don’t like to take on He Said, She Said cases. If it’s true that Halliburton is Cheney, and I have not doubts about that, then BP is going to have a hard time getting any money or satisfaction. Remember how the SC gave Bush the presidency? Even after hand recounts in Florida proved that Gore won?
I hope I don’t sound like loon.
No, you don’t sound like a loon. what you say is accurate.
Agree with first post, too, in that we heard about this here a looooong time ago. There was a teensy tinsy amount of info about Halliburton’s role in this unmitigated disaster (thanks a lot MMS & W) in the corporate-owned rightwing media “back in the day” of the oil volcano, but that tidbit about Halliburton soon got deep-sixed… no doubt by Cheney’s goon squad.
Whatever… here it is again. But no doubt it’s well nigh time to look forward, not backward. Wouldn’t want to do that. After all, the oil is “all gone,” and all good citizens should eat Gulf seafood right away because it’s totally “ok” no matter what it smells like ‘n stuff….
I was also going to say Looking forward through oil smeared goggles.
Jim White has a fresh cross-post already in progress: Obama Abandons Constitution; Picks, Chooses Laws for Faithful Execution
Whatever the outcome, offshore deep well drilling is slated to continue and the consumers of will swallow all costs except insofar as they reduce their consumption of oil products as prices rise.
the gulf of mexico has been Halliburtoned.
It would be very unusual if there were any consequences to Halliburton.
I have said from day one that what they ran into down there was a pocket of methane hydrates, a pocket they, BP and Halliburton, did not expect to encounter. Though they should have. Halliburton’s research and development, and the government industry joint ventures, have not been completed in the area of Methane Hydrate exploration and hopes, perhaps rush, in getting it to market by 2015.
Though I do not think that BP was drilling for methane hydrates, which is actually the “clean burning natural gas” that is never spoken by name, to talk about methane hydrates would be to spill the beans that the Government, with years of R&D (our tax dollars), is a realm of deepwater drilling, and shallow drilling in the Arctic, that our Government never intends to offer for public debate.
Notice that the letter does not say what the “conditions” were down there. We need to ask, demand to know, what were those conditions. If little time is spent in describing those “conditions” they encountered, we can, pun intended, expect a snow job from this Government commission.
this kind of thing, which should be mind boggling, has now become so routine, that it barely creates a ripple.
Big surprise that Halliburton finally got caught red-handed and has been exposed. Of course, nothing will happen to them beyond the usual: their profits will continue to rise.
Just check their stock price. Sure enough: it tanked yesterday, but has bounced back nicely today.
Allowing the commission and the media to only focus on the he said she said regarding “industry” only deflects from the whole story and Government responsibility. Some of the most important research that was done telling more of the story about the cement:
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/gas_surge_shut_well_just_weeks.html
So is there a breaking point when the establishment stops defending these institutions? Even just letting a semblance of justice eek through due to the sheer magnitude of their incompetence…
You would think Haliburton, BP, Blackwater (I’m sorry, Xe) would be getting close to a line—that is, if there is any line.
The accompanying graphic needs a little modification:
a ^ sign + the insertion of “and Halliburton” re identifying whose disaster this was.
the regulators are branches of these huge operations.