Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Cement Used on BP (NYSE:BP) Well Ordered to be Tested

The controversial cement mix used by Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) in the BP (NYSE:BP) oil well, and labeled as unstable by several sources, has been ordered to be tested by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier.

Barbier said the components of the mix could be "deteriorating over time" and the tests should be done as soon as possible on it.

According to Kenneth E. Arnold, who advised the U.S. Department of Interior, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, it may be too late for the cement test to do much good, as "The samples are old now," Arnold said. "Whatever tests they do now are going to be open to interpretation."

As Halliburton also claims, it's difficult to simulate the exact formula under laboratory conditions which was used inside the Macondo well, added Arnold.

This was all started from the release of results from the oil spill commission that siad the test performed on the cement mix before the accident found the mix to be unstable, bringing the actions of Halliburton into question.

Halliburton continues to claim the test done on cement formulas found to be unstable aren't the exact mix used to seal the oil well. They do acknowledge that several tests on the cement mix were unstable, other than one test result which showed the mix to be stable.

The result of this will probably be my expert against your expert thing, and in court, it's a toss-up as to who will ever win one of those.

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