BP Allowed to Collect "a key part of the crime scene." (BOP) For JD Investigation???

[another saigon]

WTF???

Seriously??? Was Jeffrey Dahmer allowed to collect his corpses for his trial. Honest to god I am so freakin furious!

:mad:



Gulf oil spill: Why raise the faulty blowout preventer? It's evidence.

Drilling on the relief well has stopped while BP prepares to raise the failed blowout preventer from the sea floor. The effort is not just a safety precaution. The equipment is also evidence that may reveal how the Gulf oil spill happened.

http://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/print/content/view/print/320977




In this video still released by BP, oil can be seen pouring out of several spots near the blowout preventer on June 3. BP is preparing to raise the failed blowout preventer from the sea floor, so that it can be used as evidence in a Justice Department investigation into the accident.
(BP/AP)


By Mark Clayton, Staff writer

posted August 20, 2010 at 6:37 pm EDT

The 450-ton blowout preventer resting a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico is set to become Exhibit A in a Justice Department investigation into what caused the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig, killing 11 men, sinking the platform, and resulting in the biggest oil spill in US history.

Preparations are under way for the massive blowout preventer stack of valves – a unit taller than a school bus is long – to be brought to the surface. The piece of equipment, says Robert Bea, a former engineer for Shell Oil who is now a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, is "a key part of the crime scene."


"The BOP is this key piece of physical evidence – perhaps the last best hope for putting the pieces of the puzzle of the Deepwater Horizon together," says John Rogers Smith, associate professor of petroleum engineering at Louisiana State University.

Thad Allen, the Gulf national incident commander, on Thursday gave the go-ahead for BP and Transocean, the drill rig operator, to replace the Deepwater Horizon's BOP with another and to bring the failed unit to the surface. But he warned BP that the BOP must be treated carefully to preserve evidence.

:wtf:

"Each procedure should recognize and preserve the forensic and evidentiary value of the BOP and any material removed from the BOP," he wrote in Thursday's directive to BP Chief Managing Director Bob Dudley. Along those lines, Justice Department investigators are now hunting for blowout preventer specialists who could conduct a forensic examination of the unit, one source told the Monitor.

:banghead:

[jaxx]

1. What are you angry about?

I'm not understanding and I can be wrong, that's for sure.

[another saigon]

3. BP is the criminal in the investigation

isn't this some sort of precedent that the criminal is allowed to collect evidence in their crime for their prosecutors, the DoJ?
Thad Allen warning them not to compromise the BOP will really make a difference to BP for their coming trials right?

[tabatha]

4. Unfortunately no-one else can raise the BOP but BP.

[obxhead]

11. That's right!

Whenever we lose a ship or submarine at sea we call in a private company like BP to retrieve the weapons and reactors that can not be left behind. We have no means of recovering that stuff without BP. :eyes:

[jaxx]

7. Ok, but who else is going to do it?

Plus the BOP has been altered from the original blowout state, parts fixed before the last cap and stack went on. Supposedly the piecing out has been documented so there is a trail back to the status on April 20th.

Unfortunately only the oil people have the means and the intel to swap out the BOP's and bring the old one up. It is important that it's examined, I think.

[another saigon]

8. there are many qualified that are not a part of BP or the US govt.

it makes no sense to let BP continue this fiasco without independent over site. Why not this guy?

-snip-

The BOP may be the last best chance to find a "smoking gun" that tells investigators whether the blowout was a result of human error, mechanical failure, bad maintenance, faulty procedures – or a combination of those, industry experts say.

"Looking carefully at that BOP is going to be critical to understanding what happened," agrees Adam Bourgoyne, a BOP expert and former dean of the College of Engineering at Louisiana State University. "With it, you're going to be able to analyze a lot about what happened just prior to the explosion."

For instance, there's the question of whether the BOP was opened and closed multiple times in the confusion of the blowout after high-pressure gas started shooting across the deck of the Deepwater Horizon rig. That might explain why, in video images, two pieces of pipe appeared to be sticking out of the top of the BOP. If the unit makes it to the surface with the pipe still inside it, part of the mystery could be solved.

"The BOP could have closed, once shut off at the sea floor," he explains. "But with all the expanding oil and gas still flowing to the surface a mile above, there could have been confusion aboard the rig over whether it actually closed or not – and the operators might have tried it again."

[jaxx]

9. They're not going to let BP examine it.

If you've listened to any of the hearings with some workers talking, it was a cluster that night. They had bypassed some things and it all spelled danger. It was a junk operation.

[another saigon]

10. BP has a very sordid history when it comes to transparency

I thought by now that was obvious. Remember when Thad finally, Finally 'asked' them to stop using Corexit after weeks and weeks? Do you believe they stopped? They went right on spaying that crap daily and as far as I know they continue, at least according to the local fisherman.

What makes you believe they would not try to tamper with the BOP? Who is going to stop them? Certainly not our so called EPA, that is for sure.

And yes I watched the hearings. That has nothing to do with how evidence, including "Exhibit A" is collected.

[SidDithers]

2. The facts don't chage, regardless of the BOP...

11 men died and 200 million gallons of oil spilled into the gulf. BP raising the BOP won't make them any less responsible.

Sid

[RC]

5. I wonder if there will be any mention that the

Drilling Mud had been replaced with sea water shortly before the blow-out, against well established, good oil well procedures.

[Poboy]

6. K&R