BP 'Company man' ordered rig workers to change normal procedure hours before explosion

5/27, wsj, "Heated argument on rig hours before blast:"..."Douglas H. Brown, Transocean's chief mechanic on the Deepwater Horizon rig, said key representatives from both companies had a "skirmish" during an 11 a.m. meeting on April 20. Less than 11 hours later, the well had a blowout, an uncontrolled release of oil and gas, killing 11 workers.

• Mr. Brown said Transocean's crew leaders—including the rig operator's top manager, Jimmy W. Harrell—

• strongly objected to a decision by BP's top representative, or "company man," over how to start removing heavy drilling fluid and
  

replacing it with lighter seawater from a riser pipe connected to the well head. Such pipes act as conduits between the rig and the wellhead at the ocean floor, and carry drilling fluid in and out of the well.

• Removing heavy drilling fluid prior to temporarily sealing up a well and abandoning it is normal, but questions have emerged about
  
• whether the crew started the process without taking other precautionary measures against gas rising into the pipe.

...the rig's primary driller, Dewey Revette, and tool pusher, Miles Randall Ezell, both of Transocean, also disagreed with BP, Mr. Brown said. However, BP was in charge of the operation and the BP representative prevailed, Mr. Brown said.

• "The company man was basically saying, 'This is how it's gonna be,' " said Mr. Brown, who didn't recall the name of the BP representative in question."...

5/26, CBS News: "Eleven hours before the rig on the Deepwater Horizon exploded...there had been an argument over the protective drilling mud that connected the rig to the oil well, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports....

• “I recall a skirmish between the company man, the OIM (offshore installation manager), the tool-pusher and the driller," said rig worker Doug Brown. "The driller was outlining what would be taking place, whereupon thecompany man stood up and said, 'No, we'll be having some changes to that.' It had to do with displacing the riser for later on.”

Brown went on to say that the driller and the tool pusher reluctantly agreed to the change....

• It was not unusual for there to be a conflict between the company that's leasing the rig and oilfield and the drilling operators, Smith testified.

He said the "company man" represents a firm that leases the rig and often pays $500,000 a day to drill for the oil, so is concerned about speed and cost. "...

• Per interview with principal of BiologicalDiversity.org on John Batchelor's show tonight, official logs of events and words in final minutes before the explosion are being withheld by the US Government and/or BP.