San Antonio EXPRESS-NEWS Sunday, Sept. 9, 1979 on was Associated Press CORPUS CHRISTI — Mexican officials repeatedly ignored advice from American personnel on how to control an offshore oil well that later ran wild, creating the world's largest oil spill, officials of a Dallas-based oil drilling company said Saturday. - -Stephen Mahood, vice president of SEDCO Inc., testified before two congressional committees looking into causes and effects of the runaway oil. SEDCO leased an offshore drilling rig to a private Mexican contractor which had been hired by the Mexican national oil company, PEMEX, to drill the Ixtoc I offshore well 50 miles off the Yucatan Peninsula. Mahood said that on June 2 the drill malfunctioned and a SEDCO official recommended certain actions that Mexican supervisers ignored. The technical advice involved trying to maintain pressure in the drilling hole. PEMEX made decision "The decision was made by PEMEX. .. to remove the drill bit and pipe from the hole ... We advised strongly against this procedure of removing the drill bit and pipe (but) Pemex elected to go ahead with this procedure," Mahood added - The American company, founded by Texas Gov. Bill Clements, also recommended that Mexican officials fill the hole with salt water to help control it, but again Mahood said the advice was not followed. Early on June 3, as the Mexicans were raising the drill bit, the pressure increased and when the bit was near the surface of the ocean it became jammed and operators could not move it up or down, Mahood said. Operations failed He said when the operators tried to activate a blowout prevention ram at the floor of the ocean it was not able to slice through the heavy steel drill bit• collar, and the well blew. When the $20 million rig blew out and ignited, all men aboard including the seven SEDCO advisers abandoned it, Mahood testified before the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee and the water resources subcommittee. Texas Attorney General Mark White, a Democrat, said he was surprised that the Republican governor's former company officials gave "operating advice" since earlier reports indicated the American firm merely provided equipment and had no part in decision making. White also questioned the decision to sink the rig, which he said deprived everyone of evidence needed to fully a vice .• ii spill it orecl investigate the accident. The rig was sunk July 12 in deep water 200 miles offshore after SEDCO decided it was damaged beyond repair and could pose a navigation hazard if it collapsed in shallow waters. "I'm very concerned that it took place," White said of the sinking. Spencer Taylor, president of SEDCO's drilling division, said the company had no choice to sink the rig. it had moved into a port or an inland waterway and collapsed, we would have had an extreme problem," Taylor said. White told the committee that merchants and other residents of the Texas coast who have suffered from a drastic loss of tourist revenues due to the oil spill should not bear their financial burden alone. "If the president and secretary of state determine, for whatever reason, that the federal government will not assist us in obtaining compensation from the responsible parties, then I believe the federal government should provide the compensation itself," White said.
