Day 137 - Failed blowout preventer removed from well

Photo of Blowout Preventer by uscgd8
U.S. Coast Guard Eighth District External Affairs

Story - BusinessWeek

BP PLC said the blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico was removed from the company's well on Friday afternoon.

The process of raising it to the surface was to be painstaking because engineers want to make sure not to damage or drop the contraption. The blowout preventer wasn't expected to reach the surface until Saturday, at which point government investigators will take possession of it.

The blowout preventer is considered a key piece of evidence in the spill investigation. Investigators will examine it and hope to gain insight into why the device failed to prevent the spill. Late Friday, the government said another blowout preventer had successfully been placed on the blown-out well.

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Federal inquiry takes aim at BP's corporate culture on safety

Testimony... showed that five high-ranking BP officials supervising the well drilling by the Deepwater Horizon each had less than six months of experience in their jobs.

Source article: Deepwater Horizon, gulf oil spill: Federal inquiry takes aim at BP's corporate culture on safety - latimes.com

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Evidence experts to oversee blowout preventer recovery

McClatchy news from Friday, August 27, 2010

WASHINGTON — A criminal evidence recovery team from the Justice Department will be on hand Saturday as BP begins the multi-day task of disconnecting the failed blowout preventer from its Deepwater Horizon oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and lifting it to the surface.

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point man on the Gulf oil disaster, said the Justice Department team would be joined in supervising the recovery 48 miles off the Lousiana coast by representatives of a joint Coast Guard-Interior Department commission that is investigating the causes of the April 20 explosion that killed 11 oilrig workers and triggered the gusher that cost the Gulf coast economy billions of dollars in damage.

"They've been allowed unfettered access to observe and record the entire removal process and the recovery process as this takes places," Allen said Friday during a briefing for reporters.

Read more: Evidence experts to oversee blowout preventer recovery | McClatchy

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