Deepwater Horizon I The Well from Hell | 2

0:00American scandal uses dramatizations that are based on true events. Some elements, including dialogue, might be invented, but everything is based on historical research.

0:25It's April 2009 on the tarmac at Port Fortchamps Heliport in Louisiana. Mike Williams instinctively ducks his head to avoid the rotor wash as he approaches the helicopter, then slings his duffel bag into the cargo hull. He's brought everything he needs for the next three weeks. That's the length of his shift, or hitch, as it's known among rig hands. The 36-year-old Williams is on his way to start a new job as chief electronics technician on the Deepwater Horizon Offshore Oil Rig. He'll be responsible for every electronic system on board, from navigation to security, and the rig is positioned off the coast of Louisiana right now, and the only way to get there is by helicopter.

1:04As he climbs into the cabin, Williams feels a thrill of excitement. The Deepwater Horizon is meant to be one of the most technologically advanced rigs in the world, and as a mobile unit, it moves from site to site and is responsible for drilling some of BP's deepest exploratory wells. So for Williams, joining its crew feels like a step up to the big leagues.

1:29Williams grabs an empty seat in the chopper and straps himself in. Sitting beside him is a large, ruddy-cheeked man in his mid-30s. The man sticks out his hand. Hey, how you doing? You must be one of the new guys. Jason Anderson, tool pusher. Williams leans over to shake Anderson's hand. Mike Williams, chief electronics technician. Electronics, huh? You're going to have your work cut out on the horizon. Yeah, what do you mean by that? I mean it's not too late to stay behind. What, does the TV in the mess room not work or something? Yeah, that, along with half the other systems on board. You're kidding.

2:01Not even a little bit. You can't even flip a light switch without something else breaking. Oh, come on, it can't be that bad. The Horizon has one of the best reputations in the Gulf. You know, we've got a reputation, all right. Run it, break it, fix it, run it again. Like I said, you're going to have your work cut out. William shakes his head. And here I thought this might be a promotion. Ah, I didn't mean to rain on your parade. You're joining a great crew, at least. The best, I'd say, in fact. I've been on horizon practically since she was launched in 01. We make sure we look out for each other.

2:32Well, I was in the Marines, and it was the same there. No man left behind, right? I thought you had that look about you. Well, you'll fit right in. All right, looks like we're about to take off. Anderson bellows over the growing engine noise. Welcome to the family, I guess. A few minutes later, the helicopter is flying over the sapphire blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Mike Williams has worked on a lot of rigs, yet he feels a sense of awe when the deep water horizon comes into view. Thick concrete columns rise out of the water, supporting a wide deck and two floors of living quarters. Above them, towering some 260 feet high into the sky, is the steel oil derrick.

3:13But as the helicopter circles the rig and prepares to land, Williams' mind returns to the tool pusher Jason Anderson's comments, and Williams begins to wonder exactly what kind of mess he's flying into.

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5:29During the 1990s, the oil giant British Petroleum was transformed. Under the leadership of John Brown, the once deadridden, bureaucratic state enterprise, became one of the most profitable companies on the planet. By the year 2000, BP had oil fields from Alaska to Vietnam and from the North Sea to the Gulf of Mexico, with revenue topping$100 billion a year. Key to the company's success was a relentless policy of risk-taking and cost-cutting. But even according to its own internal investigations, that focus on profit fostered a culture of bullying and an apparent disregard for environmental and safety regulations.

6:08And despite the best efforts of lawyers at the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as multiple criminal convictions, BP showed no sign of changing its ways. And by 2009, the company was drilling deeper than ever before, using rigs like Deepwater Horizon to find oil miles beneath the Gulf of Mexico. The rewards were potentially enormous, but the risks were even greater. So faced with an unstable well and the constant pressure to drill faster, problems quickly began to mount for the crew of the Deepwater Horizon, and eventually conditions on board would reach the breaking point. This is Episode 2, The Well from Hell.

6:48When Mike Williams arrives on the Deepwater Horizon in April 2009, the first man to greet him is Jimmy Harrell. The Horizon's chain of command changes depending on whether it's moving or drilling. When the rig's on the move, the captain is in charge, just like a ship. But once it's latched up in a position over a well, the offshore installation manager takes command, and that's Jimmy Harrell. Harrell is a Mississippi man in his mid-50s with a long white mustache that droops over his upper lip. He introduces himself to Williams and takes him on a tour of the rig. They pass along the main deck and descend into the accommodation block, a two-story steel structure packed with crew cabins, a mess hall, offices, even a movie theater.

7:32As they pass from room to room, Harrell points out the key personnel that Williams will be working with in the coming weeks. Most of the people on board, including Harrell and Williams, don't work for BP. Another company, Transocean, owns the Deepwater Horizon and is responsible for the rig's daily operations. But while it is Transocean personnel doing most of the work on board, it's the company's client, BP that's in charge of the design, planning, and execution of the drilling program. And a group of BP well site leaders ensures everything on Horizon meets with BP's approval. As the tour continues, William sees safety notices everywhere.

8:10Jimmy Harrell proudly tells him that they've now had six years with no time lost incidents on the Deepwater Horizon. The federal regulator, the Minerals Management Service, even gave the crew an award last year to recognize the rig's exemplary record. It's reassuring to Williams that they seem to take safety so seriously, but it doesn't quite square with what he heard on the flight over. At the end of the tour, they stop off at the drill shack, a steel-enclosed cabin the drilling team uses to house their monitoring and computer system. There, they're greeted warmly by the drill team who call Harold Mr.

8:43Jimmy. Among the men in the shack is Jason Anderson, the tool pusher Williams met on the helicopter. Anderson takes Williams to the window that overlooks the moon pool, a square hole in the deck that opens onto the sea. Through this moon pool, the team can lower equipment into the sea even in stormy weather. Right now, a drill bit is suspended over the pool, and Anderson tells Williams they are preparing to drill into the seabed, the first step in opening a new exploratory well. Then suddenly, behind them, one of the tool pushers curses at his computer screen. Eager to make himself useful, Williams goes over to take a look.

9:18A blue screen of death stares back at him from the monitor. The tool pusher says that's been happening a lot, and it's making a difficult job even harder. The computer system manages the sensors that acts as the driller's eyes and ears on the well, but when the computers freeze, they have no way of knowing what's going on under the water. Williams is a bit taken aback. As far as drilling for oil goes, this is one of the most challenging regions in the world, but the crew is still relying on technology that looks like it's from the 1990s. For a rig that's supposedly at the cutting edge, it doesn't seem that well-equipped.

9:52Built in South Korea in 2001, the Deepwater Horizon was once a state-of-the-art rig. But by the time Mike Williams arrives, it's starting to show its age. Salt water has corroded its pipes, and many of the rig's sensors have stopped working properly. Drilling has always been the priority. The rig has never been in dock for repairs, and many essential tools haven't been properly inspected in nearly a decade. This all means that maintenance takes up more time every shift. And the crew's workload isn't made any lighter by the fact that their numbers have been reduced year after year. When the rig was first deployed, there were so many employees on board that there wasn't enough work for them all.

10:31But to cut costs, Transocean has transferred more and more crew members off the rig. Now there are fewer people doing more work than ever before. But it's still not enough for BP. As one of Transocean's biggest clients, BP is putting intense pressure on the company to drill faster and at an even lower cost. So no matter how hard the crew of Deepwater Horizon think they're working now, they know it'll be even worse next year or even next month. So for Mike Williams, his first days on board leave him feeling unsettled. When Williams brings up the maintenance problems, the other crew members say they've spoken to TransOcean's management several times already, and nothing ever seems to get done.

11:11But after a couple of weeks on Deepwater Horizon, Williams discovers a problem he simply can't ignore, one that could put all their lives at risk. So right away, he goes to see his boss, Jimmy Harrell, in his office.

11:27Williams knocks sharply on the door. A voice from the inside calls out. Yeah, come in. Hey, can I talk to you for a minute, Mr. Jimmy? It's urgent. Hey, sure, Mike. What's up? William steps inside and pulls the door closed behind him. He sits across the desk from Harold. I've been working on that fire and gas detection system, and it looks like someone has disabled the alarms. Harold leans back in his chair and smiles reassuringly. Oh, yeah, that was us. We shut them off. You shut them off? Yeah, there were constant false alarms in the middle of the night. No one was getting any sleep. But, sir, isn't that a serious safety hazard?

12:02We were more concerned about people making mistakes on their shift because they only got two hours of shut-eye. But what if there's a real emergency? Our watch officers were spotted. They're on the bridge 24-7, monitoring the fire and gas sensors in real time. Look, if anything happens, they'll hit the alarm. But in a crisis, I mean, even a few moments of hesitation can make all the difference. I would sleep better knowing there was a working alarm. Well, Mike, I understand that, but we just can't fix it right now. This is the best we can do. But I do appreciate you coming to me with us, though.

12:31Thanks. It's clear that as far as Harold is concerned, the conversation is over. But Williams doesn't move. Harold frowns. So, um, anything else I can help you with, Mike? Yeah, because it's more than just the alarm system. I'm finding problems like this everywhere. We've got computers that don't work, sensors that malfunction. Look, I'm doing my best to patch things up. But to be honest, a lot of these systems just need ripping out and replacing. Harold sighs. Yeah, I know. And trust me, I've raised this with the higher ups. There's simply certain trade-offs we have to make. Right now, it's my job to keep all of you guys on this rig safe.

13:07That's what I'm trying to do. But it's also my job to get these wells dug. Because if I don't, I can tell you what's going to be ripped out and replaced. It won't be the alarm system. Mike Williams thanks Jimmy Harrell for his time and then trudges back to his office. He thinks Harrell is wrong, but it's not his call to make. He has to respect the chain of command, so he returns to work, and the alarm system on the Deepwater Horizon stays silent.

13:36At the beginning of 2010, the Deepwater Horizon has moved to a new well in the Gulf of Mexico. BP has named it the Macondo Prospect. Macondo is about 41 miles off the southeast coast of Louisiana. It's the job of the Deepwater Horizon crew to confirm whether this site has commercially viable quantities of oil and gas. If they're successful, they'll cap the well, and BP will build a permanent rig on the site to extract the oil at a later date. As a mobile platform that moves from site to site, Deepwater Horizon isn't directly attached to the seafloor. Instead, it floats on the surface, kept in position over the well by thrusters and propellers.

14:15From there, a pipe connects the rig to the wellhead 5 ,000 feet beneath the surface. The plan at Macondo is to drill another 13 ,000 feet into the rock to reach what is hoped to be an enormous reservoir of oil and gas. It won't be simple. The forces at play are enormous. The diamond-tipped drill the Horizon team uses is just 7 inches wide at its thinnest point and cuts through the rock by rotating at a high speed. Every extra foot deeper they drill, the heat and pressure will increase, which means the slightest mistake could have disastrous consequences. But the crew of the Deepwater Horizon has plenty of experience, and they have no reason to be especially concerned when drilling begins at Macondo in February 2010.

14:57It soon becomes clear, though, that this is no ordinary well. Tool pusher Jason Anderson is on shift at the drill shack, maneuvering the drill into position deep below the sea. One of the well site leaders from BP is with him. They're already behind schedule, and the BP manager urges him to drill faster. Anderson is hesitant, though. Every well has its own temperament, and they've found that Macondo is especially volatile. It's already started to belch gas, and what drillers call kicks, these can be dangerous. Without careful monitoring, the gas they release can surge past the drill and rise up the pipe to the oil rig above, potentially causing an explosion.

15:36But BP is the client, and it's in charge of the drilling program, so Anderson does as he's told. He increases the speed of the drill while closely watching the well. Soon, though, he notices a problem. It's not gas this time, but mud. As the drilling team digs deeper into the bedrock, the enormous weight of the earth threatens to crush the newly cut well. So to stabilize the pressure and prevent the well from caving in on itself, they use drilling mud to fill the hole they make. Drilling mud is a mix of synthetic fluids, polymers, oils, and chemicals that can weigh twice as much as water. It's pumped in and out of the well during the drilling in a constant cycle.

16:16Anderson can tell a lot about the state of a well just from the drilling mud. In a healthy well, the volume of mud being pumped in should match the volume coming back out. But right now, the cycle has been broken. There's more mud going in than is coming out. Anderson frowns. This is bad news. It means somewhere far below them, the walls of their well have collapsed, and the drilling mud is leaking into the surrounding rock. Anderson explains what's going on to the BP supervisor, who curses under his breath. Drilling mud is expensive stuff, up to$500 a barrel. So even as they speak, BP is losing hundreds of dollars a second.

16:54So he tells Anderson to do something to stop it, and quickly. But right now, Jason Anderson isn't worried about the costs of drilling mud. Between the kicks and this latest collapse, he's afraid they're losing control of Macondo altogether, and that the Deepwater Horizon is now sitting on top of a bomb, one that could go off any second.

17:17I'm Raza Jaffrey, and in the new season of The Spy Who, they open the file on Benedict Arnold, the spy who betrayed the American Revolution. America is fighting to free itself from the British Empire, and one of its foremost generals is Benedict Arnold. He's a smuggler turned battlefield hero and admired for his aggressive tactics. But when a war wound, a new wife, debts and politics test his loyalty to the max, he turns spy and devises a plot to shatter the revolution and help Britain capture rebel commander-in-chief General George Washington and that plot would make him the most infamous traitor in US history follow the Spy Who now wherever you listen to podcasts you can also listen to the full season of The Spy Who Betrayed the American Revolution early and ad-free on Audible

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19:16It's late February 2010 by the time the crew of the Deepwater Horizon stops a leak in the Macondo well. They pump in gallons and gallons of drilling mud to balance the pressure and plug the fissures in the rock. But patching the well in this way isn't quick, and it's not cheap. It costs BP two weeks of drill time and$14 million. BP originally planned for the Macondo well to be ready in 77 days at a cost of$96 million. but both those targets have already been blown. Deep-sea drilling is a risky business, and problems like these are not uncommon, but BP has little patience for setbacks. The company wants the project back on schedule and back on budget, and the crew of the Deepwater Horizon is put under pressure to make up for lost time.

20:01According to a later report by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, John Guide is one BP employee who knows precisely how many corners the Deepwater Horizon team is being forced to cut. 52-year-old Guide is an engineer who oversees operations on the rig from BP's headquarters in Houston, Texas. And just days after the leak in the Macondo well is fixed, he has a conference call with the crew on Deepwater Horizon to discuss another problem. Guide is a BP veteran. He's worked on dozens of deepwater wells before Macondo, but this one is turning out to be especially troublesome. He knows that many on board the oil rig have adopted a new name for it, calling it the well from hell.

20:40Guide hurries into a conference room with his laptop in one hand and a coffee in the other before dialing into the call with the drill team. His BP counterpart on the rig brings him up to speed. A leak has been detected in the blowout preventer, one of the most important pieces of safety equipment on the well. In the event of a kick or an even worse emergency, the huge 300-ton device uses a series of valves to seal the well and stop gas and liquid from surging up the drilling pipe to the rig. On his laptop, Guide watches footage recorded by a remote-operated vehicle on the seafloor. The video is grainy, but it still clearly shows hydraulic oil leaking from one of the valves on the giant blowout preventer.

21:20Seeing this, Guide sighs. First, they lost all that drilling mud, and now this. There doesn't seem to be anything on this job that doesn't leak. Guide sips his coffee and listens as the team on the rig discusses the implications of the leak in the blowout preventer. The drill team wants to stop work entirely while they finish repairs to the unit. They're even talking about hauling it back to the surface for maintenance. That could lead to a delay of weeks or even months. Guide clenches his jaw because this is the last thing he needs. He already has corporate breathing down his neck. Most of the executives he works with have only been in their jobs for a couple of months and don't really understand how things work out on the rigs.

21:58They keep making last-minute changes to the drill program that Guide then has to explain to the disgruntled team on Deepwater Horizon. In one email to his boss, Guide has already explained that the Horizon crew are at their wit's end. So now, he taps his fingers on the table as he tries to think of a solution that will satisfy headquarters without putting too much additional pressure on the drill team. It's just then when Guide remembers something. According to federal regulations, a blowout preventer only needs to be repaired if it's not working properly. But in this case, it's only one leaky valve, which has a workaround.

22:33The rest of the preventer is working just fine. So Guide speaks up to interrupt the debate. He tells the crew that there's no need to haul up the blowout preventer. They can just neutralize the pressure on the leaky valve and keep drilling. To Guide's relief, the team agrees. His solution will save them all time and hassle. No one wants to be working on this well longer than they have to. So Guide ends the call with a sigh of satisfaction. One more disaster averted. And from that point on, there are hopes that things on Deepwater Horizon might finally be turning a corner. Because despite all the problems, there are signs the drill team is approaching the hydrocarbon reservoir they've been looking for.

23:10They've detected elevated gas levels, and as they drill deeper, sensor readings confirm a large, high-pressure formation of oil and gas. Then, in mid-April, the drill reaches its target depth of 13 ,293 feet, and it's clear that Maconda holds a rich deposit of fossil fuels. But BP doesn't want to stop there. The plan is to drill 1 ,000 feet more to search for another suspected reservoir even deeper in the rock formation. But as the drill team presses on, it becomes apparent that they've not yet tamed the well. Drilling mud again begins to leak. They try to pump more in, but that doesn't work, and soon they've lost almost 3 ,000 barrels, roughly$1 million worth of mud.