WASHINGTON — Several days before the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, BP officials chose, partly for financial reasons, to use a type of casing for the well that the company knew was the ...

BP chose to use an oil well casing that the company knew was not as safe as a second approach but was considered the better "economic" option, according to a BP document given to The New York Times by ...

Once a well has been drilled, if it is to become a production well, the well must undergo completion. While drilling a well cuts through the rock formations and allows drilling engineers to reach the ...

ConocoPhillips, Tesco Corp., and Schlumberger Ltd. successfully tested rotary-steerable casing drilling in South Texas, combining directional drilling technology with casing drilling. "Each of these ...

Internal documents from BP show that there were serious problems and safety concerns with the Deepwater Horizon rig far earlier than those the company described to Congress last week. The problems ...

Noble Energy Inc. suspended drilling the deeper part of its Leviathan-1 giant Miocene gas discovery well in the deepwater Mediterranean off Israel and is moving the rig to drill a development well at ...

But if gas bubbles invade the setting cement, they can form a channel for pressurized gas and oil to surge uncontrollably up the well, usually around the casing. The cement must be strong enough to ...