A piece of drill pipe wedged between key components of the blowout preventer used at BP's doomed Macondo well kept the emergency equipment from blocking surging oil and gas - and stopping the Gulf spill last year - according to a forensic examination of the device. The conclusions were outlined in a 551-page report released today and written by the forensic examination firm that has spent months putting the 60-foot-tall, 300-ton equipment through a battery of tests to find out why it failed April 20.

     According to the firm, Det Norske Veritas, the failure was rooted in the inability of powerful blind shear rams on the device to slash through slightly off-center drill pipe and seal closed. Because the portion of drill pipe located between the shearing blades of those rams had buckled and moved off-center, it was outside the space where the rams were designed to slash through obstacles. "As the blind shear rams closed, a portion of the drill pipe cross section became trapped between the ram block faces, preventing the blocks from fully closing and sealing," DNV reported.

The company elaborates:

 

     As the blind shear rams were closed, the drill pipe was positioned such that the outside corner of the upper blind shear ram blade contacted the drill pipe slightly off center of the drill pipe cross section. A portion of the pipe cross section was outside of the intended blind shear ram shearing surfaces and would not have sheared as intended. As the blind shear rams closed, a portion of the drill pipe cross section became trapped between the ram block faces, preventing the blocks from fully closing and sealing."

     The company found that the physical problem would have occurred regardless of how the blowout preventer was activated - whether by an automatic "deadman's switch" or using hydraulic signals sent from workers on the  Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded and sank after the blowout. The drill pipe probably shifted and buckled as soon as well control was lost, DNV found.

     The report released today is likely to feed calls for a redesign of blowout  preventers, including proposals for redundant pipe-cutting components and more powerful rams. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers have advanced legislation that would require an additional blind shear ram that could sever pipe and seal an open well hole even if debris blocked other rams from functioning.

     The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement separately imposed new mandates on blowout preventers, including independent third-party verification that the blind shear rams are capable of cutting any drill pipe in a well hole under the highest anticipated surface pressure.

     Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said the report casts doubt on whether blowout preventers can ever be counted on as a last line of defense against runaway wells. "Now we know there could also be systemic design issues with blowout preventers that could cause them to be ineffective, even when deployed as intended," Markey said. "It isn't clear from this report that blowout preventers can actually prevent major blowouts once they've started. We cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that the blind shear rams did not seem to work." Markey called on the Interior Department to immediately launch a top-to-bottom inspection of the design and effectiveness of blowout preventers used in U.S. waters.

     Invented nearly 90 years ago, blowout preventers are giant stacks of valves installed on top of land and sea wells to help maintain control during unexpected pressure changes. The BOPs play their most vital role in emergencies, when metal shear rams are designed to slash through the drill pipe and casing, and a so-called blind shear ram is supposed to slam shut and seal off the open hole.

     The blowout preventer at the Macondo well was manufactured by Cameron International and carried on Transocean's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. A spokesman for Cameron noted that "the BOP was designed and tested to industry standards and customer specifications," and said the company continued "to work with the industry to ensure safe operations."

     Officials for BP, which leased the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig from Transocean, said the oil company was still reviewing the report. "We . . . agree with the report's recommendation that additional testing should be completed to provide a more comprehensive view of why the BOP failed," the company said in a statement. "We support efforts by regulators and the industry to make BOPs more reliable and effective."

     BP has asked a federal court to let the company put the equipment through more tests, but Cameron insists that any additional examination should be done by a neutral auditor. Officials with the Chemical Safety Board, which witnessed the BOP examination, also pushed for further testing.

     DNV began testing the device at a NASA facility in New Orleans in mid-November, at the direction of the Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which are jointly investigating the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The Coast Guard and ocean energy bureau will examine the blowout preventer testing results during hearings the week of April 4 in New Orleans.

     All of the companies with a stake in the BOP testing - including BP, Cameron and Transocean - were on site for the examination, but they were barred from manipulating the device. Representatives from the Chemical Safety Board, the Justice Department and the plaintiffs in a spill class action lawsuit also were on hand for the testing.

   BP has backed off from plans to sell assets in Algeria, the country's energy minister said Sunday, a blow to potential Russian buyer TNK-BP but a vote of confidence for the nation amid unrest in other parts of North Africa. BP's decision to stay put in Algeria contrasts with its decision to suspend some operations and repatriate staff from neighbouring Libya, where turmoil has shut more than half of oil output. The announcement also came after the company's Russian joint venture TNK-BP, half-owned by BP, said Tuesday it was still interested in buying the assets owned by the British company, the largest foreign oil-and-gas investor in Algeria.

     In an interview, Algerian Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi said 'BP doesn't want to go. BP has decided to cancel its plan to sell' the assets in the North African nation. BP, which has never confirmed plans to sell assets in Algeria, and TNK-BP declined to comment. The minister said he wasn't given a reason for BP's decision to end the planned sale - which would have involved a large chunk of its Algerian portfolio. But he suggested the oil giant no longer needed the cash for a divestment program launched after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year.

     'One can imagine they are aware of the potential there in their oil and gas assets and decided to stay,' Mr. Yousfi said. The company had planned to sell the assets as part of a $30 billion asset-disposal plan designed to cover the costs of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill. The sale of assets 'was not tied to the situation in Algeria ... Maybe they have resolved this problem' of selling assets to cover the costs of the Gulf of Mexico spill, Mr. Yousfi said.

     While confirming its interest in the BP Algerian assets, TNK-BP had cautioned it didn't expect a breakthrough in negotiations soon. Algeria's state energy firm, Sonatrach, had signaled an interest in exercising a right of first refusal to the BP assets. Separately, TNK-BP's Russian shareholders are in a dispute with BP over the U.K. company's possible participation in an Arctic deal with Russian oil company Rosneft.

     In Algeria, BP has two large natural-gas projects, In Salah, which covers seven fields in the southern Sahara desert, and In Amenas. BP also participates in the Rhourde El Baguel oil project and is exploring for oil in the Bourarhet block next to In Amenas. Mr. Yousfi said negotiations continued for an expansion phase at the Rhourde El Baguel project. 'There are discussions (with Sonatrach). They are solving it,' he said.

     After revolutions toppled regimes in Egypt and Tunisia and threatened the rule of Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, some experts have wondered whether oil supplies could come under threat in the rest of the Middle East and North Africa. But after riots in January were met with economic and political responses, Algeria has been insulated from the sort of turmoil faced by its neighbors to the east.

     Mr. Yousfi pointed out that even during a wave of terrorist attacks in 1990s, Algerian oil and gas production wasn't affected. 'Even during the difficult period of the 1990s when we had a very strong terrorist activity, there was never any disruptions in the sector,' he said.

     South Korea has secured access to more crude oil reserves after signing a deal with Abu Dhabi to develop oil fields in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company  will give Korean National Oil Corp (KNOC) guaranteed stakes in reserves of at least one billion barrels of oil. The deal comes as countries around the world try to secure energy reserves as the price of oil surges. South Korea is reliant on imported oil. It is Asia's fourth-largest economy, and Korea competes with the likes of China and India to secure energy resources. In recent years it has been trying to reduce its dependence on imported oil.

     This deal, which will be finalised next year, will raise the amount of South Korean-owned oil imports from 10 - 15% of consumption. Last year KNOC bought Dana petroleum, an oil exploration and production company, for $2.6bn (£1.8bn). In a memorandum of understanding issued by the South Korean presidential office, the two countries also agreed to store six million barrels of Abu Dhabi crude oil in Korean storage facilities for free.