From the Senate hearing room, the FT’s US political correspondent Anna Fifield reports:
Protestors and lobbyists jostled for seats in the back of the packed Senate hearing room on Tuesday morning.
Some environmentalists with black tears painted on their faces wore T-shirts saying “Energy shouldn’t cost lives” while others in suits worse stickers reading “Protect our beaches”.
As the senators and executives walked in, some protestors, this time in pink, yelled “BP kills wildlife”.
First session: the experts
After opening statements from committee chairman Jeff Bingaman and the ranking Republican, Lisa Murkowski, the panel heard from two expert witnesses: Elmer Danenberger, the former chief of the offshore regulatory programme at the Minerals Management Service, the Interior Department agency that has come under fire for its role in the crisis; and Gene Beck, associate professor of petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University.
Much of the early attention on Tuesday was on the shear rams, the components of the well that are supposed to slice through pipes and close the well during a catastrophic event, but which did not properly work in the BP well. Experts have theorised that the pipes were too thick to be cut through, or did not work under the pressure at 5,000ft below sea level.
Questioned by Mary Landrieu, the Louisiana senator who reiterated her support for offshore drilling on Tuesday morning, Mr Danenberger said: “There were changes made in the regulations that required the operators to provide data that showed that the shear rams would effectively shear the drill pipes that were being used in the well under the worst possible conditions. However, we know that tool pipes [or other pipes] can’t always be sheared.”
Mr Beck added that the use of shear rams was a rare occurrence, suggesting that the industry’s understanding of how they work was not all that it could be. “This is is not something going on weekly or monthly. It’s possible that rigs out there have never used shear rams. This is something that we need to look at in more depth.”
Second session: executives from BP, Transocean and Halliburton
As the executivesfrom BP, Transocean and Halliburton each tried to apportion blame to the other, they came in for a ticking-of from Lisa Murkowski, the ranking Republican on the committee and senator from Alaska, the site of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.
“I would suggest to all three of you that we are all in this together because this incident will have an impact on the energy policy of our country,” she said. “If you can’t convince people that you can operate safely, not only will BP not be out there, but the Transoceans won’t be out there to drill the rigs and the Halliburtons won’t be out there cementing,” Ms Murkowski said.
Democrat Ron Wyden, one of the committee’s most animated interrogatorson Tuesday, shone a light on BP’s safety record in the US, recalling the Texas refinery explosion in 2005 that left 15 dead, and the 2006
Alaska oil spill.
“There is a pattern of safety problems at BP,” Mr Wyden said. “Why has BP not been able to change its corporate culture?”
Mr McKay responded: “I believe we are changing this company, I believe it has been changed at its core,” since the arrival of Tony Hayward as BP’s global head in 2007, who Mr McKay said had “taken over the reins
with a single mantra: safety.”
Lamar McKay pointed to the establishment of a group organisational risk committee and new standards applied in all BP locations.
“I will acknowledge that we have had issues and that we have had to change the company. It all comes down to the culture of the company,” Mr McKay said.
That got Mr Wyden going. “It sure does!” he said. “The culture of this company is that there has been one accident after the other.”
Bob Menendez, the Democratic senator from New Jersey and lead sponsor of a bill to raise the cap on damages that oil companies are liable for from $75m to $10bn, compared the BP well and Transocean rig to the Titanic.
“We were told that the Titanic was so technologically advanced that it couldn’t sink, and we were told that this well was so technologically advanced that it couldn’t spill,” Mr Menendez said. “Unfortunately both of these technological marvels ended in tragedy.”
The protestors in pink T-shirts who livened up the beginning of the hearing provided the book-end.
As Mr Bingaman called the hearing to a close, they stood up and, waving “Boycott BP” signs, chanted: “Hey, Hey, Lamar MacKay, how many fish did you kill today?”
The three executives are due to appear before the Senate’s environment and public works committee at 2.30pmEST.
