Page 97 - test2

223
noon on April 20. The pressures in the well remained constant during testing.
Dr. Smith, an expert retained by the JIT to review test data and other
224
information, found the positive pressure test to be acceptable.

3. Negative Tests Conducted on April 20

Without much time to consider changes in the temporary abandonment
procedures, on April 20 the Deepwater Horizon crew began work toward
conducting the critical negative test to evaluate well integrity. Before starting the
test, the crew displaced mud from the wellbore with seawater, which would
simulate well conditions after the well had been temporarily abandoned.

The first step of the negative test was to displace the riser boost line, the
choke line, and the kill line with seawater. These efforts began at
225
approximately 4:00 p.m. on April 20. Over the next 30 minutes, the crew
pumped the 454 bbls of spacer (consisting, as discussed above, of mixed lost
circulation materials). Around 4:30 p.m., the crew then pumped approximately
352 barrels of seawater into the wellbore, which took approximately 25 minutes.
After pumping the spacer and seawater, seawater should have been located
down the workstring and in the wellbore from 8,367 feet to 5,117 feet total depth
and the spacer should have been located just above the seawater ‐ from 5,117 feet
226
to 3,707 feet.

After the displacement, the rig crew should have seen a drill pipe pressure
of 1,610 psi, based on hydrostatic fluid calculations. However, the electronic data
indicates that the drill pipe pressure was 2,339 psi. This reading was more than
700 psi higher than it should have been. If the crew saw this information, they
should have taken measure to resolve this anomaly because it may have
indicated that the spacer remained below the BOP stack (and could have clogged
the choke or kill lines). 227 This problem could have been resolved by continuing
the displacement (through the choke line) to ensure that all mud and spacer had
been removed from the wellbore below the BOP stack. This method of “cleaning
up the well” would not have compromised the function of the spacer because
228
most of the spacer was already in the riser above the BOP stack.

223 Smith Report at 7; Deepwater Horizon IADC Daily Drilling Report, April 20, 2010.
224 Smith Report at 8.
225 This first step was different from the first step in the MMS‐approved APM.
226 Id. at 9.
227 Id.
228 Id. at 18‐19.

92