BP oil well cement was problematic

Tests on BP's oil well in the Gulf of Mexico before its deadly blowoutshould have raised doubts about the cement used to seal the well, U.S. investigators say.

The company and its cementing contractor used it anyway, the president's oil spill commission said Thursday.

It is the first finding from the commission looking into the causes of the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers and led to the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. And it appears to conflict with statements made by Halliburton Co., which has said tests showed the cement mix was stable.

The cement mix's failure to prevent oil and gas from entering the well has been identified by BP and others as one of the causes of the accident.

BP and Halliburton decided to use a foam slurry created by injecting nitrogen into cement to secure the bottom of the well, a decision outside experts have criticized.

The panel says that of four tests conducted in February and April by Halliburton, only one the last showed the mix would hold. But the results of that single successful test were not shared with BP, and may not have reached top officials at Halliburton, before the cement was pumped, according to a letter sent to commissioners Thursday by chief investigative counsel Fred Bartlit.

BP had in hand at the time of the blowout the results of only one of the tests a February analysis sent to BP by Halliburton on March 8 that indicated the cement could fail.

"Halliburton (and perhaps BP) should have considered redesigning the foam slurry before pumping it at the Macondo well," Bartlit writes.

Independent tests conducted for the commission by Chevron on a nearly identical mixture were also released Thursday. The results conclude the cement mix was unstable, raising questions about the validity of Halliburton's final test.

BP, as part of its internal investigation, also conducted tests that showed the cement mix was flawed, but its analysis was criticized by Halliburton, which said it was not the correct formula. The company also said the testing Halliburton did on the cement was incomplete.

By contrast, the commission obtained proprietary additives from Halliburton as well as a recipe to recreate the slurry that was used on the well.

A spokeswoman for Halliburton said the company was reviewing the findings and would have a response later Thursday.