A former BP contractor who claims that the oil giant’s Atlantis production platform in the Gulf of Mexico is unsafe is gaining attention on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are pressurisng the federal government to shut it down.
Claims by Kenneth Abbott, who was fired by BP in 2009 allegedly after raising persistent claims about lax engineering documentation on the platform, have fuelled the belief among many members of Congress that, far from being an anomaly, the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe arose out of a fundamental problem with BP’s culture, and that the Atlantis could be the next “ticking timebomb”.
“I think that the only thing worse than one oil spill in the Gulf would be two BP oil spills and I think Congress and BP should heed the warning you are giving,” Edward Markey, a powerful Democratic congressman, said in a hearing this week in which Mr Abbott’s claims were aired.
Unlike the Deepwater Horizon, which was a drilling rig, the Atlantis, which is operated by BP and co-owned by the company and BHP Billiton, the mining group, is an oil and gas production facility, turning out 200,000 barrels of oil a day.
At the centre of Mr Abbott’s claim are allegations that BP skipped critical procedural steps that require engineers to approve design structures. Although he was never on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, Mr Abbott said that he believed, based on his analysis of press reports, that he saw on the Atlantis the same problems that led to the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
“This lack of critical engineering documentation is being seen on the Deepwater Horizon rig, was involved in the Texas City disaster in 2005 and the Alaska pipeline spills in 2006. It’s a common thread for those disasters in BP Atlantis,” Mr Abbott told members of Congress.
Mr Abbott said a database he developed before being fired by BP found that of a total 7,000 drawings and documents, almost 90 per cent had never received any engineering approval of any kind.
BP has said that it had thoroughly investigated the claims last year and found them to be “without substance”. The company added in a statement: “As CEO Tony Hayward constantly makes clear, safe and reliable operations are his number one priority for BP and the company has a very strong record of safe and reliable operations in the Gulf of Mexico.”
But according to Mr Abbott, a review of his allegations by BP’s own ombudsman, former federal Judge Stanley Sporkin, found the claims had merit.
Bob Abbey, the acting head of the Minerals Management Service, which regulates the oil and gas industry, told lawmakers that MMS had conducted four inspections of the Atlantis and found no violations.
The case will test Michael Bromwich, this week charged with revamping the MMS, who is keen to show that the regulator – and the Obama administration – take safety seriously.
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