Barbier
U.S. Attorney Steve Overholt announced that the federal government is considering a second round of tests on the drilling cement used on the Deepwater Horizon oilrig, which exploded and sank in April 2010.
The drilling cement tests come at the conclusion of prolonged tests on the failed blowout preventer (BOP), which a government report stated was the cause of the oil rig explosion and massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Overholt said that the U.S. Geological Survey concluded that about nine large cement rocks were among the debris left by the explosion.
The first set of testing on cement was aimed at judging the integrity of the drilling cement used by making it from powder.
The second set of testing will be aimed at examining the cement rocks that were found with electron microscopes, Overholt said.
Overholt made the announcement at a regularly scheduled status conference for the multidistrict litigation (MDL) surrounding the BP oil spill.
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is overseeing the MDL in the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Overholt also reported that the BOP is in the process of being transferred from one location to another within NASA's Michaud facility.
The giant BOP had to be disassembled into parts so that it could be more easily transported and so it wouldn't damage the floor of the facility's largest building, Overholt said.
Federal MDL 2:10-md-2179