BP's Other Rig May Be Primed for Disaster

Whistleblowers have said the Atlantis isn't safe, but nothing's been done
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 28, 2010 2:52 PM CDT
BP's Other Rig May Be Primed for Disaster
BP's Atlantis Production Platform is seen in this promotional photo.   (PRNewsFoto/BP)

Oil companies are once again happily drilling in the Gulf of Mexico—including a BP rig that watchdog groups have called a “ticking time bomb.” Well before the Deepwater Horizon explosion, a whistleblowing ex-BP contractor told the government about a host of safety and legal issues aboard the company’s massive Atlantis platform, Mother Jones reports. The Atlantis is in deeper water than the Macondo well, and pumps more oil in a single day than it spilled in total.

Ex-contractor Kenneth Abbott told the government last year that more than 7,000 documents required to run the Atlantis are incomplete, that its sub-sea piping and instrument diagrams weren’t approved by engineers, and that its safety systems were outdated. Lawmakers took an interest, but the Minerals Management Service (which is now called the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management) has refused to take action against Atlantis, or provide documentation proving it’s safe. (More British Petroleum stories.)

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