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Macondo well, rig personnel identified three leaks on the stack prior to the
379
blowout.

The first leak was a “very small” leak on the control hose for the upper
380
annular surge bottle that resulted from a loose fitting. The leak was discovered
about two weeks after the Deepwater Horizon’s BOP stack was positioned on the
381
Macondo well. The second leak was in the lower annular; the crew never
determined where fluid was coming from but through testing ruled out a
number of components related to the annular. The third leak was in the lower
382
test ram arising from the one of the solenoids on the yellow pod. The crew
383
function and pressure tested the BOP stack after these leaks were discovered and
those tests were successful.
384

Mark Hay explained Transocean’s process for assessing leaks. When a
leak is discovered, he said that “you would talk to the maintenance supervisor
and OIM and then you would do a risk assessment on the rig, and then the rig
team would make a decision, and you would give field support a call with your
findings, your leak rates and all that, and they would determine if it is deemed
385
necessary to pull and make repairs.”

BP noted the leak on the lower test ram in its internal daily operations
386
report from February 23 until March 13. Despite identifying this leak, BP did
not take steps to ensure that Transocean reported that leak in the IADC drilling
387
report. Transocean did not record the leak on the upper annular control hose
on the IADC drilling report. BP’s John Guide did not believe the leak on the
388

379 Hay testimony at 242; Pleasant testimony at 113. In addition, response personnel identified
BOP system leaks during efforts to shut the well in. It is not known whether those leaks
developed post‐blowout or existed before the blowout and were not identified by the crew.
380 Hay testimony at 193‐194.
381 Id. at 244.
382 Id. at 193, 195.
383 Id. at 193‐194, 196.
384 Id. at 249.
385 Id. at 243.
386 BP’s Daily Operations Reports, 02/23/10 – 03/13/2010.
387 Id.
388 Id.

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