Kent Wells News

The Deepwater Horizon joint investigation concluded the fourth day of the fourth session of hearings August 26 into the circumstances surrounding the explosion, fire, pollution and sinking of the Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit Deepwater Horizon, with multiple loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. The joint investigation has the powers of both convening agencies, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM), and is co-chaired and staffed by representatives of both agencies. For the public hearing, the joint investigation is following the policies and procedures…

According to an August 26 report from Bloomberg, BP Plc’s Kent Wells, a senior vice president who joined the Gulf of Mexico oil-spill response two days after it began four months ago, said he doesn’t know who was in charge aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig when it exploded in April. Wells, a former chief of shallow-water exploration in the Gulf who has overseen BP’s onshore U.S. natural-gas business since 2007, told the panel he doesn’t know why the company never followed up on audits that showed the Deepwater Horizon was behind on some maintenance and inspections. (Source: Bloomberg)

According to a June 10 report from Reuters, BPwill begin burning up to 10,000 barrels a day of oil from its Gulf of Mexico leak possibly as early as Monday, June 14, a company executive said. The British energy giant is collecting oil spewing from its blown-out seabed well through a containment cap and plans to test a second system to capture more oil over the weekend, Kent Wells, BP's senior vice president of exploration and production, said in a telephone briefing. BP said the cap system atop the well collected 15,800 barrels (660,000 gallons/2.5 million liters) of oil on Wednesday, June 9, a small increase over the 15,010 barrels captured the day before. (Source: Reuters)