The Macondo cement job revisited
An interview with Ronald E. Sweatman
MEI INTERVIEW NO. 11 (HOUSTON) — On the day of the Macondo blowout, April 20, 2010, Ron Sweatman was working in Europe as a Halliburton technical consultant. Upon his return to Houston, he soon was seconded to join in a joint task force of the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC). The task force would grow to more than 100 professionals who examined diverse aspects of the Macondo accident with the goal of making recommendations to industry and government. In the course of his work, he read hundreds of pages of drilling reports and technical documentation. At some point, he took a different path to answering the question as to the original, or root, cause of the accident.
Mr. Sweatman has 47 years of service in the oil and gas industry. He was with BJ Services and Halliburton each for 17 years, mainly in cementing, fracturing and other well services. He has served the industry in the preparation of technical papers and books. He wrote chapters on cementing in several publications, including the IADC Drilling Manual (2014) and the SPE textbook on drilling engineering (2011). He has prepared two IADC/SPE papers on modeling to predict kicks during drilling.
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