3 Squabbling Companies Must Cooperate to Plug Well

James Lee Witt, right, listens to BP PLC CEO of Gulf Coast Restoration Organization Bob Dudley as he...

James Lee Witt, right, listens to BP PLC CEO of Gulf Coast Restoration Organization Bob Dudley as he speaks at a news conference to announce Witt's hiring as an advisor to BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill response in Biloxi, Miss., Friday, July 30, 2010. Witt, the former FEMA director under President Bill Clinton, is expected to advise BP through its long-term response and recovery efforts. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

(AP)

On shore, BP, Halliburton and Transocean are engaging in a billion-dollar blame game over the blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. At sea, they're depending on each other to finally plug up the environmental disaster.

Workers say the companies' adversarial relationship before Congress, in public statements and maybe one day in the courts isn't a distraction at the site of the April 20 rig explosion, where Transocean equipment rented by BP is drilling relief wells that Halliburton will pump cement through to permanently choke the oil well.

"Simply, we are all too professional to allow disagreements between BP and any other organization to affect our behaviors," Ryan Urik, a BP well safety adviser working on the Development Driller II, which is drilling a backup relief well, said in an e-mail last week.

But at least one expert said government probes and potential for lawsuits can't help but chill communication between the companies.

Urik's rig was in a holding pattern Saturday, awaiting progress by its sister rig, the Development Driller III, which is drilling the primary relief well and ran into a minor snag while preparing for a procedure known as a static kill that will make it easier to stop the gusher for good.

The DDIII is clearing out debris that fell in the bottom of the relief well when crews had to evacuate the site last week because of Tropical Storm Bonnie.

Once the debris is cleared, engineers plan to start as early as Monday on the static kill, which involves pumping mud and possibly cement into the blown-out well through the temporary cap. If it works, it will take less time to complete another procedure known as a bottom kill, the last step to permanently sealing the well by pumping mud and then cement in from the bottom, which could happen by mid- to late August.

Workers know all about the clashes among their respective employers, "but the crews have done an excellent job of focusing on getting these relief wells finished safely," Dennis Barber, a Transocean senior toolpusher aboard the DDII, said last week in an e-mail from the rig.