A NEW Orleans federal judge overseeing litigation after the Deepwater Horizon disaster has ordered an oilfield services giant to turn over cement to federal investigators.
Judge Carl Barbier, who released his order yesterday, said no destructive testing on the cementing components would be conducted without further order of the court.
The order came a day after a US government panel said Halliburton had used flawed cement in the BP well that blew out in the Gulf of Mexico in April, killing 11 workers and causing the worst offshore oil spill in US history.
Halliburton vigorously defended its actions in a lengthy statement issued on Thursday night, saying there were significant differences between the company’s trials on the cement used in the Macondo well and the government’s tests.
The company was hired by BP to perform cementing operations to seal the well.
Halliburton has said responsibility for the disaster lay with the global energy company, claiming BP did not conduct a key test to determine the integrity of the cement job.
It said in its statement: “BP, as the well owner and operator, decided not to run a cement bond log test even though the appropriate personnel and equipment were on the rig and available to run that test.”