Legal battles add to BP's difficulties

BP spent Monday readying possible solutions to stem oil leaks from an undersea well off the Louisiana coast, and fending off new accusations about its role in the widening environmental disaster.

Crews were building a containment dome, a four-story, 70-ton structure that the company plans to lower into place over one of the three leaks to catch the escaping oil and allow it to be pumped to the surface.

The company also was trying to install a shut-off valve at the site of one of the leaks, but rough seas delayed that effort. Heavy winds damaged miles of floating booms laid out in coastal waters to protect shoreline from the spreading oil slick, which appeared to be drifting toward the Alabama and Florida coasts and the Chandeleur Islands off Louisiana's southern tip.

On the bright side, chemical dispersants pumped near where the oil is spewing from the sea floor seemed to be helping to keep oil from floating to the surface, officials reported in a midafternoon briefing.

Meanwhile, lawyers representing environmental groups, rig workers and fisherman hurt by the explosion levied fresh accusations against BP, as well as Transocean and Halliburton. BP was operating the doomed Deepwater Horizon rig, which it leased from Transocean. Halliburton was providing several services on the rig, including cementing, a method of capping the well to control pressure from oil and gas.

At least one worker who was on the rig when it exploded April 20 and who handled company records for BP said the rig was drilling deeper than 22,000 feet, even though the company's federal permit allowed it to go only to 18,000 to 20,000 feet, the lawyers said.

BP strongly denied that it was drilling deeper than allowed.

"The allegation surrounding the permitted depth is factually incorrect," BP spokesman Andrew Gowers said, adding the rig was permitted to drill to 20,211 feet and it drilled to 18,360 feet.

Another worker familiar with the rig said the company chose not to install a deep-water valve that would have been placed about 200 feet under the seafloor. Much like blowout preventers, devices meant to seal leaks, this valve could have served as a cutoff of last resort, the lawyers said.

"The company took their chances in not having the valve so they could save money," said Mike Papantonio, one of the lawyers representing the shrimpers and fishermen.

Gowers declined to comment except to say the investigation was ongoing.

A Halliburton spokeswoman, asked about suspicion that gas was allowed to build up in the well bore, said it is a matter that still needs to be investigated. A Transocean spokesman said the company still was investigating.

More than a half-dozen workers who were on the rig at the time of the explosion told the lawyers that the rig operator seemed to be rushing to finish and detach from the well — a possible factor that could have contributed to the explosion.

Meanwhile, Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, said the containment dome would be placed above the largest leak and that pipes then would pump oil from the ruptured well to a drill ship on the surface.

"This has been done in shallow water, but it's never been done in deep water before," he said. The company was trying other methods, including drilling a relief well and installing a shut-off valve, to deal with the other two leaks.

After a weekend of stormy weather, officials said clear forecasts for the coming week would make their work much easier.

The blast that sank the drilling rig came less than a day after workers finished pumping concrete into the well, a step toward closing it off temporarily. BP planned to return to the well later to set up a permanent rig and start producing oil.

Encasing a well in concrete is one of the most critical aspects of oil drilling, and presents many risks.

The concrete is highly specialized. It needs to be blended and stirred properly. It also must be pumped into the well so that it comes out the bottom and oozes back up around the well casing, forming a tight seal.

The concrete work apparently did not achieve a complete seal, and natural gas seeped into the well in the late stages, the lawyers said.

But idling a rig to address such a problem can cost huge sums. The lawyers said supervisors either missed or ignored the signals.

When workers ultimately released the last valves that held back natural gas that had built up inside the well, the gas shot up the pipe and sprayed into the drilling rig, igniting the fireball that killed 11 workers, injured others and eventually sank the rig, the lawyers said.

BP and Halliburton declined to comment on the accusations.

Shifting and easing winds in part of the Gulf on Monday bought time for weather-beaten crews to bottle up and burn off a massive slick of rust-colored crude oil before it fouls fragile marshes and sugary beaches across four Gulf Coast states.

That reprieve, however, could have a nasty ripple effect — pushing outlying plumes of polluted surface water and patches of tar balls into the Gulf of Mexico's powerful loop current. That would propel the mess across the mangrove islands, sea-grass beds and coral reefs of the Florida Keys, then up toward Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale and beyond.

Trajectories from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest the oil will remain offshore at least through Tuesday, and a University of Miami oceanographer said a weather front expected in 24 to 48 hours likely will begin pushing the spill away from the coast and toward the loop current.

Information from The Washington Post and McClatchy Newspapers is included in this report.

The oil spill's political ramifications were felt Monday far beyond the Gulf of Mexico. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he no longer could support a controversial new offshore oil-drilling project near Santa Barbara.

The plan would have generated $119 million for the cash-strapped state's 2010-11 budget by allowing an oil company to drill from an existing rig. But Schwarzenegger, a Republican, said the risk was too high.

The New York Times