By ANDREW W. GRIFFIN

Oklahoma Watchdog, editor

Posted:  July 19, 2010

andrew@oklahomawatchdog.org

OKLAHOMA CITY – Details about the final days and hours aboard the doomed Deepwater Horizon oil rig could very well be in the Tulsa, Okla. office of Schlumberger Oilfield Services in the form of mud logs, computer data and other vital drilling-related information, according to an oil-industry insider who spoke to Oklahoma Watchdog this week but did not want to reveal his identity.

And as for the folks at Schlumberger, they aren’t talking, at least when it comes to the gritty details.

Stephen Harris, the Schlumberger spokesman who told Oklahoma Watchdog last week that investigative reporter Wayne Madsen “made up” a story about the oilfield service company’s involvement with the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has not answered follow-up questions regarding the Houston-based company’s connection to the catastrophe.

Madsen, based in Washington, D.C., reported July 9 at both Wayne Madsen Report and Online Journal that “smoking gun” documents connected to Schlumberger’s work on the doomed rig may have been squirreled away at either their Tulsa or Houston office and would likely explain in detail what really happened out there in the Gulf.

Oil industry sources who have consulted with Oklahoma Watchdog this week noted that Harris’s denial is what he is supposed to tell the media when questioned about their involvement. Saying as little as possible is their way of damage control.

“They’re like lawyers, they look for loopholes,” the oil industry source said of public relations executives like Schlumberger’s Harris. “They have every motivation in the world to deny everything and hide evidence. Schlumberger is covering their ass in this one. They don’t want to get caught up in a lawsuit.”

The source said tort lawyers are already starting to circle, knowing that BP, Schlumberger, Halliburton and Transcocean potentially face risking billions in litigation that could go on for many years.

Added the source: “(Schlumberger) doesn’t want to have to testify against BP because BP feeds them. They don’t want to have to admit they have any records at all.”

As for the denials, it may all be a question of industry semantics. Madsen reported that “mud logs” exist and would point out that Schlumberger’s “warnings about an impending disaster were ignored by BP supervisors and the evidence of BP’s criminal malfeasance sits in secured room at Schlumberger’s offices in Tulsa.”

Yet, mud logging is part of wirelining. You have one with the other, our industry source explained. It’s in their timeline, given to a U.S. Senate subcommittee.

The industry source explained to Oklahoma Watchdog that “wirelining” which was being performed by Schlumberger on April 8, 2010,  is part of mud logging operations.

He said: “It’s part of the geology services,” the source said of the wirelining and mud logging process. “Schlumberger does real-time geology services. They do three-dimensional mapping services. Basically in Tulsa what you have is the computer room and that information goes out to the field,” the source said. “You need a printout of the mud log to do the wirelining so you know what you’re doing.”

And still, Harris’s denial, however, is curious, considering the stories and rumors circulating about Schlumberger and Deepwater Horizon, including articles previously linked here at Oklahoma Watchdog. Mud logging is definitely part of the operations conducted by Schlumberger, although the insider source said that getting too caught up in the mud logging issue is a distraction from the real issue which is actually – what work was Schlumberger doing out on Deepwater Horizon specifically, why did they leave the rig and why aren’t the survivors talking?

In a Schlumberger press release that came out on March 24, 2010, just under a month before the spill, headlined “Schlumberger acquires Geoservices from Astorg and minority shareholders.”

Geoservices, according to the release, is a French oilfield services company that specializes in “mud logging, slickline and production surveillance operations.”

“The addition of mud logging technology to the Schlumberger portfolio is an important step in the development of higher-performance drilling systems,” said Andrew Gould, Chairman and CEO, Schlumberger Limited. “The combination of Schlumberger real-time downhole formation sampling measurements with Geoservices’ drilling mud analysis will help customer better identify and react to drilling hazards, while the combination of mud logging with Schlumberger formation evaluation measurements will bring more complete understanding of rock lithology and fluid content.”

The release continues, explaining mud logging: “Mud logging extracts information from the drilling mud and drilling process while drilling and provides data for bother formation evaluation and drilling efficiency. In formation evaluation, mud logging complements wireline logging and logging-while-drilling measurements. In drilling efficiency, mud logging provides insight into the dynamic state of the well and allows drilling mud weight properties to be optimized.

So, Schlumberger appears to have had access to mud logging technology via their takeover of Geoservices.  And yet Harris told this website that “Schlumberger did not run any mud logs for the Deepwater Horizon …”

Our industry source said the smoking gun is that BP  paid Schlumberger to do all geological services on this block. And in an internal Schlumberger timeline document of Mississippi Canyon Block 252,where the Transocean Deepwater Horizon rig was located – all Schlumberger services performed for BP pursuant to contract – in February and March, Schlumberger had been contracted to “provide wireline open and cased hole services.” This document has already been made public and made available to members of Congress.

“That is the smoking gun. They paid Schlumberger to do all geological services on this block,” he said.

Noting the events of March 10, 2010, the timeline notes that drilling pipe was “stuck” in the wellbore during drilling. Two days later, the timeline notes that a tool used by Schlumberger “becomes lodged and is abandoned” and British Petroleum “reimburses Schlumberger for the cost of the tool.”

Our inside source thinks that tool and some damage done to the blowout preventer (BOP).

But other web sources note that much more was going on on the Deepwater Horizon. Schlumberger returns to Deepwater Horizon in April and find the well was “still kicking heavily, which it should not be that late in the operation.” An argument allegedly takes places between BP’s “company man” and the Schlumberger crew (trained to work in only safe conditions). BP wants Schlumberger to finish their job. But when the Schlumberger crew sees that BP will not shut the well, they request to be helo’ed off the rig and back to shore.

The industry source that spoke with Oklahoma Watchdog wants to know who that BP “company man” is, because he and others believe that person and others in the chain of command are likely guilty of negligent homicide in the deaths of the 11 men who died aboard the doomed rig after it exploded and eventually sank, leading to the soiling of a big chunk of the Gulf of Mexico and beaches along Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

Now, the Schlumberger timeline notes blandly on April 20 that “At approximately 7 a.m., BP informs Schlumberger crew that no wireline cased hole services will be requested and BP sends Schlumberger crew home.”

It states in the final line that “At approximately 11:15 a.m., Schlumberger crew departs Transocean Deepwater Horizon on regularly scheduled BP helicopter flight.

Granted, no mention of mud logging, but it does note that two days before the disaster, “BP contracted with Schlumberger to be available to perform a cement bond log and set a bridge plug and/or cement retainer, should BP request those services.”

Cement bond log? Mud logs? Did Stephen Harris dismiss Madsen’s account because of a layman’s confusion over terminology or that a subcontractor may have been present?

Our inside source believes this to be the case. Our source said since BP contracts with Schlumberger quite a bit, Schlumberger is only looking out for its financial interests and doesn’t want to finger BP as being negligent.

The  oil industry insider we consulted with said that Schlumberger has not done anything wrong, they are just protecting themselves and don’t want to open themselves up to litigation.

And in a May 19, 2010 Reuters article headlined “Schlumberger says its crew left Horizon day of fire,” Schlumberger told the wire service that “On the morning of April 20, 2010, BP notified the Schlumberger crew that it could return to its home base in Louisiana” and that the crew left on one of “BP’s regularly scheduled helicopter flights.”

Schlumberger’s Stephen Harris, based out of their Houston office,  has not returned our calls or emails since that one initial encounter last week.

UPDATE (7 p.m. July 19, 2010): Harris did eventually send Oklahoma Watchdog a comment that echoed the same information as the above information featured in the  Reuters report. No new information was included, even though a request for a “log” of the information was requested.

Copyright 2010 Oklahoma Watchdog