7 May 2010 Round up the usual suspects

7 May 2010 Round up the usual suspects


Halliburton May Be Culprit In Oil Rig Explosion

Huffington Post First Posted: 04-30-10 10:43 AM
Updated: 04-30-10 03:59 PM

“Giant oil-services provider Halliburton may be a primary suspect in the investigation into the oil rig explosion that has devastated the Gulf Coast, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Though the investigation into the explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon site is still in its early stages, drilling experts agree that blame probably lies with flaws in the "cementing" process -- that is, plugging holes in the pipeline seal by pumping cement into it from the rig. Halliburton was in charge of cementing for Deepwater Horizon.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/30/halliburton-may-be-culpri_n_558481.html

Somehow, the thought that Halliburton may be at fault for this does not surprise me at all. They are the same company that is, in the end, responsible for the electrocution of at least 18 U.S. service personnel in shoddily constructed showers. Halliburton subsidiary KB&R was responsible for the construction and wiring, which was, no doubt, further sub-contracted to local low-bidders using labor pool workers no longer available to question.

There is still an on-going investigation concerning this matter. But Halliburton will not be held responsible and will not be stripped of its lucrative, no-bid, services contracts. They are one of few corporations that control the services industries for industrial support. And they are too well entrenched and too well connected.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/government/could-the-gulf-oil-disaster-be-halliburtons-fault/8899

“Could the Gulf oil disaster be Halliburton's fault?

By David Gewirtz
May 6, 2010, 8:07am PDT”

“So where’s Halliburton fit in with all this? It turns out, it was Halliburton’s job to cement the deepwater drilling hole where all the oil’s coming out of. There’s a lot of science here, but the gist of it is that cement is a key part of the process, sealing up the hole for part of the drilling process.

If the cement were to fail, the hole would have a hole.

This is apparently what happened off the coast of Australia about a year ago. There was a major blowout in the Timor Sea and Halliburton has been accused of performing a poor cement job.”

The Australian oil leak investigation documents Halliburton as being responsible for failure in the cementing process. This seems to be a primary possibility for the reason our Gulf shores are now being coated with oil and our seafood industry is rapidly becoming unemployed. Depending on ocean currents and hurricane season, this spill may contaminate our entire Atlantic coast as well.

Halliburton views itself as “indispensible” to our military campaigns and to many industrial clients. They have little competition and it would be hard to start up new companies to replace them. The equipment demands, and, in some instances, the technical expertise may be difficult to meet. But I’d rather our tax dollars go to new companies than to Halliburton. They are a holdover from the Bush/Cheney administration that, like Blackwater/Xe, should never have been issued a contract. The decision to use Halliburton led to the wrongful deaths of U.S. troops in a manner that should never have happened and that should never be forgotten.

If faulty work by Halliburton is the cause of this disaster, BP gets no pass. As they are the primary corporation responsible for cleaning up this mess, despite any deals that Cheney slipped them under the table about limits of responsibility, they are guilty of allowing Halliburton to do what they did in Australian waters, use inadequate and poor quality materials; cutting every conceivable corner to squeeze profits out atop an already immense paycheck. That hunt for extra pennies is path gnomic of the problem, profits trump quality every time. Halliburton’s greed, along with BP’s; mixed with Cheney’s machinations, has fouled our oceans, destroyed our shellfish, our food and sports fisheries, game and song birds, and caused untold damage to countless eco-systems and economic communities.

They, Halliburton and BP are not “too big to fail.” They need to pay for every penny of damages and every penny of cleanup. If they go under, too bad. The department of Justice had better be looking for offshore assets and accounts for Halliburton. It’s time to freeze and seize that money. Otherwise, it will be gone and Halliburton will claim they have no funds.

We’ve seen their lack of concern at the deaths of U.S. troops. How much greater their concern must be now; not at the damage they caused in Australia and may have caused here, but at getting caught, yet again.