Safety Board Objects to Shutdown of Gulf Rig Tests

The US Chemical Safety Board has objected to the shutdown of tests on the blowout preventer that failed in the Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil catastrophe. Tests on the 60-foot-tall, 300-ton blowout preventer were being conducted jointly by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation.

The Chemical Safety Board, which has been monitoring the testing, wants further tests to confirm whether a fundamental design flaw may have contributed to failure of the blowout preventer's control pods, according to a document obtained by the Associated Press. A spokesperson for the two agencies running the tests said they believed they had done all the tests needed.

• "Oil Spill Post-Mortem: Deepwater Horizon's Blowout Preventer May Have Had Fundamental Flaw," Associated Press, March 4, 2011, by Harry R. Weber.
• "Blowout Preventer Inquiry Discovers No Conflict So Far," Houston Chronicle, January 29, 2011, by Jennifer A. Dlouhy.
• "Oil Spill Investigators Find Critical Problems In Blowout Preventer," Washington Post, May 13, 2010, by Steven Mufson and David A. Fahrenthold.