In Honor of Dr. Thomas B. Manton, a True Modern American Hero

Posted on January 21, 2011 by concernedcitizensofflorida

A BP Gulf Oil Spill HERO is railroaded through the Florida Criminal Justice System, then dies after being assaulted in the Florida State Prison System

Dr. Thomas B. Manton passed away on Wednesday, January 19th, after suffering an assault at Liberty Correctional Facility in Bristol, Florida. He was serving an unlawful 15-year prison sentence, after being wrongfully convicted of a crime he did not commit. Given Tom’s advanced age, serious medical conditions and health problems, and complete lack of criminal history, he should not have been placed into the general prison population. The Florida Department of Corrections further failed Tom Manton when they exposed him to the dangers associated with violent criminals who prey on other inmates just like Tom.

Tom was the former President/CEO of the International Oil Spill Control Corporation which was one of the very first oil spill control companies in the world formed outside of the rubric of the Oil & Gas Industry. In this capacity he helped create many of the protocols and establish many of the standards that are still in use today throughout the realm of oil spill control. He became an increasingly vocal critic of the BP response to the Gulf Oil Spill, and wrote five searing articles in that regard. He was particularly distressed that the US Federal Government allowed BP to completely take charge of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster area, as his experience taught him that “the offending oil company should never be given command over the oil spill response”.

Tom Manton was one of the founding members of the Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference in Tallahassee, FL. In this capacity he formed the very backbone of this International Citizens’ Initiative offering his wealth of experience, broad and deep knowledge base, and penetrating insights into the complexities of proper oil spill remediation. Tom also brought an invaluable international network of professionals and contacts, many of whom joined the cyber-conference after his spirited recruitment. He truly appreciated the enormity and seriousness of the BP Gulf Oil Spill very early on, and set about the process of educating the US Government, as well as the States of Florida and Louisiana, about the huge challenges that lie ahead.

When Tom Manton was framed for a crime he did not commit, many of us wondered who it was that exercised so much power within the Florida Criminal Justice System. He was railroaded through the criminal justice process with such speed, force and determination – after the BP Oil Spill received so much national and global attention – that many of us could only come to certain disturbing conclusions. Furthermore, when a 15-year sentence was handed down, after Tom was led to believe that time served would be his only prison requirement, all of his colleagues became very concerned. His sentence, given all the extenuating circumstances, exceptional disregard of various criteria, and flouting of sentencing guidelines, was unprecedented in Florida history.

In light of these, and many other extraordinary points of fact surrounding his entire case, we are compelled to ask, “Just who is responsible for the death of Tom Manton – a true HERO of the BP Gulf Oil Spill?*

More importantly, this conference now poses the following question: “How will this nation, which Tom Manton served with great self-sacrifice, generosity of spirit and concern for his fellow Americans, honor his awesome legacy?”

Dr. Tom Termotto
Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference
Tallahassee, FL
OilSpillSolution@comcast.netSKYPE: Gulf_Advocate
http://oilspillsolutionsnow.org/

*Certainly the very mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Matt Simmons, another courageous voice with international stature who informed the world about the true state of affairs in the Gulf of Mexico, comes to mind when considering the silencing of Tom Manton.

Disturbing Simple Facts and Errors in the BP and Oil Commission Reports

We are compelled to ask how there can be so many disturbing facts (inconsistent) and simple errors in both the BP and Oil Commission Reports?
Simply put, there are now many more new questions and concerns given the data and information that has been officially published.
The following cursory assessment presents a “report on the Reports” submitted to the Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference by BK LIM, Geohazards Specialist.  We leave it to the reader to decide how to interpret the various basic discrepancies.
Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference
Tallahassee, FL
OilSpillSolution@comcast.net
SKYPE: Gulf_Advocate
http://oilspillsolutionsnow.org/

 

It would then mean the total depth of the well was only 18,360 ft BSL or 5,000 ft short of the 23,360 ft BSL the well was supposed to have reached at the time of blowout.

If the 10,000 ft mark is supposed to be below mudline (ML) we again run into another problem. The depth interval from seabed to 10,000 ft mark is equal to the depth interval from 10,000 to 15,000 ft and 15,000 to 20,000 ft. Now that cannot be right either.

For the seismic section to be consistent with the drilling information given out by BP, the correct depth scale should approximate to the assumed scale given on the right.

Thus, we come to the conclusion:

If simple facts and depths can be so confusing, what more can we expect from sophisticated analyses with missing facts? Can we trust BP’s internal investigation report (BP Deepwater_Horizon_Accident_Investigation_Report) to be credible when the depth information given out to the Oil Commission investigation team was slightly confused to a difference of 5,000 ft? Was it so surprising my previous article on The Forensic Analysis Of BP’s Bathymetric Chart, revealed so many errors and improprieties?

So What Does BP Mean When It Blames Transocean For The Rig Explosion?

Who exactly does the BP mean when it says “Transocean?” Does it mean the top level management at the company, the mid-level employees, or the grassroots workers on the rig at the time of the explosion?

It doesn’t seem like BP has any ill will at all towards the top-level management at Transocean, or the CEO. BP has just gone ahead to extend its contract with Transocean at another rig in the same area. According to Reuters, BP has signed up Discoverer Enterprise for about a year and a half. The contract will run from February of 2011 to July of 2012.

Obviously, all is hunky Dory between Transocean and BP. So I’m guessing that when BP says “Transocean” is to blame for the oil rig explosion, it actually means the workers on the rig at the time of the explosion. I believe that when BP says Transocean is at fault, it actually means the Transocean employees who were on the rig at the time of the blast, including the rig managers and workers, and not the Transocean CEO or any other top level executive at the company.

A letter to the Congressmen on BP Mega Oil Spill disaster.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Below is a letter which I have written to two US Congressmen/Chairmen regarding some geohazard/seafloor developments at the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, the location of last year's BP Oil Spill.

I have posted many articles on the internet on the geohazardous conditions at the Macondo site (see http://bklim.newsvine.com and http://phoenixrisingfromthegulf.wordpress.com). Those of us working in the Oil and Gas Industry know how dangerous oil exploration can be and the disastrous consequences of any blowout, especially those that had reached their targeted reservoirs. The number of near disasters and oil spill disasters in recent years is not, and can never be, good for our industry. The safety of our working colleagues and the future of the oil industry are dependent on improving, not deteriorating safety standards and compromising preventive pre-drill planning, management and geohazards assessment.

We must also prove to the world our sincerity, our responsibility and our accountability towards preserving the global environment and leaving the world in a better place for our children. To those who know me or have worked with me in the past, I would deeply appreciate your support in emailing some words of verification that I (BK Lim) am a real person (not virtual) and a professional geohazards specialist working in the offshore Oil and Gas Industry.  If appropriate, you might want to address any similar issues or incidents that would validate a pattern of conduct which led to the Macondo Blowout, as well as many similar situations that have occurred throughout the history of offshore oil and gas drilling.

To those who have not met me in person, but have come across my past work and contribution to the industry, please spare some time to write to:  

        Dr. Tom Termotto, National Coordinator

        Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference

        Tallahassee, FL    

        "Oil Spill Solution"

                   

We greatly need the world's support in the remediation of the BP Oil Spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.  Who would be better to lend support to this international community endeavor than those whose livelihoods depend on the Gulf's future, and those who understand the true state of affairs wherever oil and gas drilling are conducted in the oceans of the world.

Kind regards,

BK Lim

A relook at the fundamentals of landslides and slope failures.

It is disasters like this which should force ourselves to look at the fundamentals of landslide and slope failures. For such huge mass of earth to slide, the undermining weakness (sub-bedrock erosion) had to develop for a long time to fail at the last heavy downpour. Thus, we need to study the sub-bedrock erosion problems and do the necessary mediation before such catastrophes strike again. Unfortunately, nobody is looking at the real fundamental problems at depths (>50 to 100 m deep); only the superficial drainage and soil structure down to 20 or 30 m deep only.  

- commented by BK Lim 

Jan 14, 2011

-- PHOTO: AP

More than 500 dead in Brazil's worst-ever disaster

TERESOPOLIS (Brazil) - BRAZIL is suffering its worst-ever natural disaster after mudslides near Rio de Janeiro that killed more than 500 people, according to the latest toll on Friday.
Municipal officials in the Serrana region just north of Rio told reporters that at least 506 people were killed, surpassing the 437 killed in a 1967 mudslide tragedy that 'up until now seen as the biggest (disaster) in Brazil,' according to the news website G1.
It was feared more bodies were yet to be discovered as rescuers finally arrived in villages cut off because of destroyed roads and bridges in the region.
Efforts to locate survivors and bodies were going on under the risk of further mudslides, as rain continued to fall on the waterlogged region, making it even more unstable.
'It's very overwhelming. The scenes are very shocking,' President Dilma Rousseff said after visiting the area on Thursday.
She pledged 'strong action' by her government, which has already released US$470 million (S$605 million) in initial emergency aid and sent seven tons of medical supplies. The catastrophe was seen as her first big test since taking power two weeks ago, taking over from her popular predecessor, Mr Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. -- AFP

A mining disaster that should not have happened

Police halt body recovery at New Zealand mine
Posted: 13 January 2011 1648 hrs
WELLINGTON: New Zealand police said on Thursday they were abandoning efforts to retrieve the bodies of 29 men killed in one of the country's worst mine disasters.

After a two-month operation, police commissioner Howard Broad said there was no realistic prospect of recovering the bodies entombed in the Pike River colliery since November 19, when a methane gas explosion tore through the mine.

Broad said the mine would be handed back to the receivers who had taken charge of the Pike River Coal company and it would be up to them to decide if recovery efforts should resume once volatile gases underground subsided.

The other option was to "simply put a fence around it and walk away", he added.

"In my view, it is time to focus on the living and respect and memorialise those men who have died," he added.

The victims of the disaster, which Prime Minister John Key said had plunged New Zealand into mourning, included two Australians, two Britons and a South African.

A series of explosions continued to rock the mine in the weeks following the initial blast, igniting an underground fire and making the pit, on the South Island's remote west coast, too dangerous to enter.

Efforts to stabilise the underground atmosphere this week by sealing cracks in the mine shaft with expanding foam then flooding the pit with inert gases failed and Broad said sending in recovery teams would put lives at risk.

Since the disaster, Pike River Coal has been placed in receivership and most of its employees have been made redundant.

Executives at Pike River had hoped to eventually reopen the mine but shares in the company have been suspended since receivers took over in mid-December and the latest development casts further doubt on its future.

- AFP/fa

 Progress at Pike River coal mine

Recovery efforts have taken a step forward with workers finally capping the Pike River coal mine.
Two large steel plates were lowered, via helicopter, onto the mine’s ventilation shafts and then secured with sandbags on Sunday at 2pm local time.
Capping of the ventilation shafts is expected to trap the carbon dioxide emitted by the GAG jet, controlling the mine’s oxygen levels and preventing fires from reigniting.
If the oxygen levels remain stable, then the GAG jet can be stopped for maintenance while workers use more concrete to seal the mine’s entrance.
From that point onwards “it will be a case of maintaining a stable atmosphere inside the mine,” Police superintendent Dave Cliff said.
Police plan to eventually pump nitrogen gas into the underground mine over the coming days to retain the inert atmosphere and cool the mine.
On Friday, Police stated their intention to hand control of the mine back to Pike River Coal, who are focused on the recovery of 29 miners underground.

http://www.miningcoal.com.au/news/progress-at-pike-river-coal-mine

Nov 28, 2010 Fourth blast rocks NZ death mine
GREYMOUTH - ANOTHER explosion on Sunday tore through a New Zealand colliery where 29 miners died earlier this month, police said, adding no one was injured in the latest blast.

The blast, the fourth at the Pike River coal mine since an initial November 19 explosion trapped the men, and demonstrated the colliery's volatility, police said.

'There were no injuries and people working near the entrance to the mine were moved away from the area for their safety,' superintendent Dave Cliff said.

Emergency crews have been unable to recover bodies from the remote South Island mine because it remains flooded with explosive methane gas. -- AFP

Disaster may stop mining in NZ - 28 Nov 2010
GREYMOUTH (New Zealand) - THE future of New Zealand?s entire underground mining industry was in doubt following a colliery disaster that claimed 29 lives, Prime Minister John Key said on Sunday.

The industry, which has enjoyed a boom in recent years thanks to surging demand from Asia, could not continue if there was a risk of more tragedies such as this month's Pike River pit explosion, Mr Key said.

Announcing he wanted a powerful Royal Commission to investigate the disaster, Mr Key told TVNZ: 'In the end, the future of Pike River and actually underground coal mining in New Zealand rests on this. We can't put people into mines that are dangerous.'

He said there were four underground mines in New Zealand and about 450 people were directly involved in the industry.

The colliery, which opened two years ago, remains flooded with explosive methane gas, preventing emergency crews reaching the miners? bodies entombed within. -- AFP

Updated 26 November 2010 at 08:28 GMT

The latest blast happened at 1539 local time - almost exactly one week since the initial blast that caught the men - 24 New Zealanders, two Australians, two Britons and a South African. Prime Minister John Key has warned it may take months to recover the men's bodies, and pledged an investigation, saying the nation "needs answers".

The third blast was less powerful than the earlier two, and no-one was near the mine entrance when it happened, said Pike River Coal chairman John Dow.

Updated: 25 Nov 2010. The latest graphic illustration confirms the earlier obvious methane gas leak through the Howera Fault.

Although this man-made disaster could have been  averted by simple commonsense foresight, such oversights are not legally prosecuted for various vested business interests.

Such safety lapses and cost-cutting measures occur on daily basis across the globe. But as clearly seen in the BP Gulf mega Oil Spill and in this mining disaster, it was a disaster just waiting to happen when negligence meets Nature's fault-line.

Some facts from BBC news report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11835565.  

• New Zealand's largest coal mine
• Employs some 150 people
• Operational since 2008
• Accesses Brunner and Paparoa coal seams via 2.3km tunnel under Paparoa Ranges
• 5.5m-wide, 4.5m-high tunnel bisects Hawera fault, through which methane gas is known to leak
• First blast is believed to have happened at 1530 (0230 GMT) on Friday
• Two injured miners emerged from the tunnel entrance on Friday evening

posted 24 Nov 2010.

What is the common factor between the BP Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster and the Pike Mine Disaster?

Both companies knowingly drilled into a fault zone with good probabilities of leaking methane gas. The dangers of methane gas had been well-documented and forewarned yet both companies did not exercise extra precautions. On the contrary, instead of beefing up capability (manual expertise and equipment) we saw equipment failing below working specifications.

In the Pike Mine, there were reports that the faulty pumps for the ventilators were not working to capacity. When a tunnel intersect a known fault (Hawera Fault - 60 m wide zone of fractured rocks) surely the possibility of gas infusion into the tunnel should have been checked out. So why were there no reported inspection checks on the methane gas level? Why was the methane allowed to build up to explosive level?

Was there any element of willful negligence as in BP disaster?

Read the latest news on the second explosion.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11662533

IS it any surprise the second explosion occur after boreholes were drilled into the tunnel? Basically you are introducing air into an explosive mixture.  Should that not be obvious?

 ~~~~Start of Quote~~~~

An Australian gas drainage engineer who visited the site last year said operating standards were "extremely poor".

His comments were backed up by a world renowned Kiwi mining safety expert who said the explosion at Pike River should never have happened.

Neither will be publicly identified but say safety problems will be investigated in the coming weeks.

"In developed countries like the United States and New Zealand we shouldn't be having these kinds of accidents," the New Zealand expert said.

He was also referring to an explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia which killed 29 miners on April 5.

~~~~http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10689068

An email from Tony Haywire of Bogus Petroleum

From:

Tony Haywire(tonyhaywire.boguspetroleum@gmail.com)

Sent:
Wed 1/09/11 9:53 AM

To:

Microsoft SmartScreen marked this message as junk and we'll delete it after ten days.
Wait, it's safe!

Hello
I work with an oil company with an oil concession (#MC252) in the Gulf of Mexico, United States of America. I have a business proposition for you.

Our exploration department had discovered a huge oilfield with a potential payload of 100 billions of barrels of light sweet crude. At USD75/barrel, we are looking towards $7500 Billion US Dollars of revenue. Our COIA director (code name Dick Tracy) of covert business in US, has been detained in Nigeria over a recent corruption charge and is not expected to return to the US to assist in the covert operation of extracting millions of dollars out of the unsuspecting US public. Just a little secret - have you wondered why the US economy is bleeding so badly?

We came across your articles in the newsvine. You seem to have a lot of influence on the newsvine, fishing community and US congressmen. We could use you to replace our Dick Tracy who would not be able to come back to the states anytime soon. We have been having a lot of protests by the fishing community in the Gulf states. We suspect it has to do with one of our secret wells (Macondo A) leaking oil into the gulf. All our Mass Deception acts doesn't seem to work their magic on the small people anymore. We think this is the doing of that pesky little guy who called himself a geohazards specialist writing on the newsvine and leaking all our dirty little secrets.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I and other officials in my company decided to seek your assistance and offer you the position of COIA (Covert Operation in America) director, to replace Dick Tracy.

If you accept this position, we would transfer immediately (10.5Million Dollars) to your account as seed money for you to influence the American "small people" through bogus publicity, bogus press, bogus publication and bogus everything.

I expect that you will give me your telephone and fax numbers for easy communication with you and for more details.
Best Regards
Mr Tony Haywire
Phone Number +22678034394
Burkina Faso, UK.

p.s You will understand to keep this matter confidential. We would not like to see you drown in your hot tub.

• 1
  

David Uhlmann: BP, Halliburton Likely Face Criminal Charges For Gulf Oil Spill

HARRY R. WEBER AND CURT ANDERSON | 01/ 6/11 04:17 PM | 

NEW ORLEANS — Months of investigation by a presidential commission and other panels reinforce the likelihood that companies involved in the Gulf oil spill will be slapped with criminal charges that could add tens of billions of dollars to the huge fines they already face, legal experts said Thursday.

The reports don't blame a single person or group responsible for the series of mistakes. That means in the end no one may go to prison for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

BP, Transocean and Halliburton should survive thanks to their financial arsenal, though charges would take another chink out of their armor.

"The evidence of negligence is too compelling and the harm is too great," said David Uhlmann, former chief of environmental crimes at the Justice Department. "The Justice Department is likely to believe that BP, Transocean and Halliburton were negligent and should be criminally charged. There's no question about that."

Uhlmann, now a law professor at the University of Michigan, cited excerpts released Wednesday from the presidential oil spill commission's report, saying it alone shows the standard for criminal charges has been met.

Among the panel's conclusions: decisions intended to save time and money created an unreasonable amount of risk that triggered the April 20 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico and led to the oil spill. The panel said another similar disaster could happen again without significant reforms by industry and government.

But the panel also concluded that the mistakes were the result of systemic problems, not necessarily the fault of any one individual.

The blast killed 11 workers on the rig Deepwater Horizon and led to more than 200 million gallons of oil spewing from BP's well a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico, according to government estimates. BP disputes the figure, but has yet to provide its own.

Gregory Evans, a Los Angeles attorney who is an expert in environmental law, said prosecutors have wide discretion about whether to bring criminal charges.

"It appears that the panel has concluded that BP, Transocean and Halliburton and several subcontractors working for them took a series of very hazardous steps which appeared to be motivated by economic concerns or at least efficiency," Evans said. "This again can be seen by a prosecutor as evidence of an environmental crime."

Evans also noted, however, that the commission blamed government regulators in its report, which could mitigate culpability of the companies.

"Given the wide latitude they have, I think they could go either way on it," he said.

Criminal charges would cause fines to soar.

Under the Clean Water Act, BP, alone, already faces up to $21 billion in civil fines. Evans noted that under the Alternative Fines Act, a criminal prosecution would pose the threat of a criminal fine equal to twice the aggregate financial losses caused by the offense. A July study by Oxford Economics commissioned by the U.S. Travel Association estimated that the oil spill could cost the Gulf region $22.7 billion in travel-related economic losses over three years. That could translate into a more than $45 billion criminal fine.

The Justice Department has an ongoing criminal investigation and has already sued some of the companies involved, seeking unspecified damages. Halliburton, the cement contractor for the well that blew out, was not named in the Justice Department lawsuit.

"We continue to aggressively investigate the causes of the spill, and will examine all evidence and facts that may be relevant to that investigation and all parties potentially responsible for the spill," Justice spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said.

The companies pointed fingers at each other – again – in statements after the presidential panel's conclusions.

BP PLC said the accident was the result of many causes, involving multiple companies. Transocean Ltd., which owned the rig being leased by BP to perform the drilling, said "the procedures being conducted in the final hours were crafted and directed by BP engineers and approved in advance by federal regulators." Halliburton Co. also said it acted at the direction of BP and was "fully indemnified by BP."

Robert Force, a Tulane University professor who is an expert in maritime law, said it is increasingly possible some of the companies will face charges. He did caution that the question of negligence is a tricky one.

And individuals involved with the rig and well may be able to rest easier.

"I haven't seen a revelation that said, 'we have found something really bad,' where there was an intentional violation of a regulation or improper conduct. Usually something like that would have been revealed by now," said Steve Yerrid, a Tampa, Fla. attorney who until Dec. 31 was oil spill counsel to former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. "The likelihood of an individual or a group being indicted for a criminal offense has waned with time."

Big companies can usually survive criminal convictions, but not always.

Arthur Andersen, once one of the so-called "Big Five" accounting firms, was found guilty of obstructing justice in 2002 for the shredding of documents related to the Enron scandal. Although the conviction was later reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Chicago-based firm's reputation was damaged enough to put it out of business.

On the other hand, Hospital Corp. of America – the nation's largest private hospital chain – is thriving despite paying a record $1.7 billion fine for massive Medicare fraud involving guilty pleas to 14 felonies that occurred when the company was known as Columbia/HCA.

Besides possible criminal charges, the investigations also could play a key role in the outcome of the hundreds of civil lawsuits. In those cases, attorneys for the fishermen, businesses, property owners and others want to prove gross negligence by BP and its partners, which could lead to bigger payouts.

___

Anderson reported from Miami. Associated Press writer Dina Cappiello contributed to this report from Washington.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/07/david-uhlmann-bp_n_805723.html

Halliburton Worker on Smoke Break Missed BP Well Data

December 07, 2010, 4:10 PM EST

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By Joe Carroll

(Updates with author’s comment in fifth, 10th paragraphs.)

Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- A Halliburton Co. technician missed key signals that BP Plc’s doomed Macondo well was on the verge of blowing out because he was taking a smoking break, a federal investigative panel heard.

Joseph E. Keith, a senior unit manager for Halliburton’s Sperry subsidiary, told the U.S. Coast Guard-Interior Department panel in Houston today that he left his post aboard the Deepwater Horizon for about 10 minutes on the night of the April disaster to drink coffee and smoke half a cigarette.

While he was away from his monitors, pressure data indicated the well was filling up with explosive natural gas and crude, according to charts entered into evidence today by the panel in Houston. Keith said that had he seen the pressure data, he would have “called the rig floor” to warn fellow workers they were in danger.

The April 20 catastrophe killed 11 employees, injured 17, sank the $365 million Transocean Ltd. vessel and triggered the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Millions of barrels of crude gushed into the ocean for almost three months, fouling beaches, fishing grounds and marshes, and bringing deep-water oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico to a halt.

“Without someone watching those crucial data points, the people working on the rig had no way of knowing something was awry,” Robert L. Cavnar, former chief financial officer for El Paso Corp.’s oil-drilling business and author of “Disaster on the Horizon: High Stakes, High Risks and the Story Behind the Deepwater Well Blowout.”

Halliburton fell 44 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $40.38 at 4:05 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Screens Bend

By the time Keith came back from his break, the readings on the monitors had returned to normal. Keith told the panel he realized something was wrong later when the screens he used to monitor drilling fluid used in the well began to bend and stretch, and an air-conditioning unit in the ceiling melted.

An internal investigation by BP, the majority owner of the well, found that the rig crew failed to notice signals of impending doom as long as 40 minutes prior to the explosions and fire. The report, released in September, didn’t single out individuals.

After escaping from the 6-foot-by-20-foot trailer where he worked, Keith found the body of a dead colleague on the deck. Keith was one of 115 workers who survived the disaster by boarding life boats or jumping overboard.

More Hearings Set

Keith told the panel that there were multiple maintenance operations underway on the rig as the crew prepared to move the vessel to another project. Under normal circumstances, rig crews limit themselves to one job at a time to avoid confusion, said Cavnar, who has worked on offshore and land-based rigs during 30 years in the oil industry.

“Those poor guys were put in an untenable situation by having so much going on around them at one time,” Cavnar said today in a telephone interview from Tokyo. “The more things you have going on, the harder it is for anyone to keep track of all the moving parts.”

The federal panel began a sixth round of hearings this week. The eight-person board is scheduled to hear testimony from Transocean and BP employees tomorrow and on Dec. 9.

--Editors: Charles Siler, Tina Davis

To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Carroll in Houston at jcarroll8@bloomberg.net
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-07/halliburton-worker-on-smoke-break-missed-bp-well-data.html

Man jailed for modifying accident site

 

 By Shaffiq Alkhatib | Posted: 04 January 2011 2148 hrs

SINGAPORE: A site safety supervisor of a construction firm on Tuesday became the first in Singapore to be jailed for modifying the scene of a fatal accident involving one of his workers.

Fifty-year-old Yeo Kok Chye from Beng Soon Machinery Services had planted a safety harness beside the body of 24-year-old Arumugam Karuppaiya to deceive the authorities into thinking that the Indian national was wearing it prior to the accident.

Mr Arumugam plunged seven storeys to his death at a worksite at Block 9 Upper Boon Keng Road at around 5.15pm on June 6, 2007.

Yeo, who pleaded guilty to his offences on November 30 last year, was sent to prison for two weeks and also fined S$15,000 for failing to promote safety measures at the site.

He did not conduct any safety inspection on the hacking works conducted there.

He was also unaware of the measures the workers had to take to prevent falling from height during and after hacking works to the floors of the building to be demolished.

Beng Soon Machinery Services was fined a total of S$85,000 for safety-related offences.

It also had failed to implement adequate fall prevention measures for its workers.

The company also did not provide measures to protect its employees from getting hit by falling debris.

It could have been fined a maximum of half a million dollars for implementing inadequate fall prevention measures for its employees.

-CNA/wk

Natural disasters killed 295,000 in 2010

Jan 3, 2011

People walk down a street amid earthquake rubble in Haiti. -- PHOTO: AP

FRANKFURT - THE Haiti earthquake and floods in Pakistan and China helped make 2010 an exceptional year for natural disasters, killing 295,000 and costing 130 billion dollars (S$167 billion), the world's top reinsurer said on Monday.
'The high number of weather-related natural catastrophes and record temperatures both globally and in different regions of the world provide further indications of advancing climate change,' said Munich Re in a report.
The last time so many people died in natural disasters was in 1983, when 300,000 people died, mainly due to famine in Ethiopia, spokesman Gerd Henghuber told AFP.
A total of 950 natural disasters were recorded last year, making 2010 the second worst year since 1980. The average number of events over the past 10 years was 785.
And in terms of economic cost, insured losses amounted to approximately 37 billion dollars, putting 2010 among the six most loss-intensive years for the insurance industry since 1980.
'2010 showed the major risks we have to cope with. There were a number of severe earthquakes. The hurricane season was also eventful,' said Torsten Jeworrek, the firm's chief executive. -- AFP