Texas A&M Professor: 'Agrees' Gulf Rig Cement or Casing Failed

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) -- Transocean Ltd. (RIG) on Tuesday got support for its argument that the cement or pipe known as casing must have failed and caused the April 20 oil-rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

Transocean Chief Executive Steve Newman will tell the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee later Tuesday that "the one thing we know with certainty" is that in the blast "there was a sudden, catastrophic failure of the cement, the casing or both."

"I agree," F. E. Beck, a petroleum engineer at Texas A & M University told the Senate committee. But he said that the wellhead casing "is also suspect."

Halliburton Corp. (HAL) was responsible for the cement work, which involves filling up a space between the hole bored into the sea floor and the casing inserted into the hole.

Halliburton's chief safety officer, Tim Probert, won't say whether the company's cementing work was faulty, but he will testify later that "confirming cement integrity" is up to the well owner, who can always "elect to perform remedial action" by perforating the well's casing and "squeezing cement into the remaining voids to improve the integrity of the original cement."

-By Siobhan Hughes, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6654; [e-mail]