Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE)

Excerpts from BP press release:

Atlantis is located about 150 miles south of New Orleans and has been in production for nearly 20 years. The expansion project adds two new subsea water injection wells to help increase the pressure of targeted reservoirs, unlocking additional barrels and extending the producing life of one of bp’s flagship US offshore assets.

The project, which was delivered ahead of schedule and under budget, adds approximately 10,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) of gross peak annualized average production, with around 5,000 boe/d net to bp.

Some of you may remember the 2009 False Claims Act allegations by a former BP contractor claiming that BP did not properly maintain the engineer-approved “as built” drawings of systems and structures aboard the Atlantis facility. The contractor alleged that the absence of the documentation created increased safety risks for the facility and to its personnel.

Following the allegations, an industry source closely involved with the project (but not a BP employee) made the following comment to the BOE blog:

Atlantis was by far, in my opinion, the best of the bunch; proceeded as a normal construction project. The PMs were the best I’ve come across.

BOEMRE (the name of the offshore safety regulator at the time) conducted a comprehensive investigation of the matter. Director Michael Bromwich sumarized the findings:

“As the report makes clear, although we found significant problems with the way BP labeled and maintained its engineering drawings and related documents, we found the most serious allegations to be without merit, including the suggestion that a lack of adequate documentation created a serious safety risk on the Atlantic facility. We found no credible evidence to support that claim.”

The BOEMRE press release is attached. Link to the full investigation report.

In August 2014, a Federal court dismissed the False Claims Act lawsuit because the plaintiffs lacked evidence and standing.