Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of Louisiana
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, January 26, 2015
Houston Man Charged With False Statements In Relation To Blowout Preventer Testing On Oil Platform In Gulf Of Mexico
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana announced that RACE ADDINGTON,
49, of Houston, Texas, was charged today in a two-count Bill of
Information with making false statements to agencies or departments of
the United States in relation to the veracity of blowout preventer
testing on an offshore oil and gas platform located at Ship Shoal 225
located on a federal mineral lease in the Gulf of Mexico.
According to court documents, on or about November
27, 2012, production and well workover operations were being conducted
on the platform and the blowout preventer system had to be tested. A
blowout preventer system is designed to ensure well control and prevent
potential release of oil and gas and possible loss of well control. The
blowout preventer pressure chart that recorded the testing of the
blowout preventer testing done on November 27, only recorded 6 of the 7
required components as being tested and was not signed nor dated by any
representative on the platform.
On or about November 28, 2012, ADDINGTON,
as the well site supervisor for the platform saw the results of the
blowout preventer testing and had workers create a false blowout
preventer test. The next day when Bureau of Safety and Environmental
Enforcement (BSEE) inspectors conducted a routine inspection of the
platform, ADDINGTON presented the fabricated blowout
preventer pressure test chart to the BSEE inspectors with the
expectation that it would be a passing test and the inspectors would not
find the platform to be in non-compliance for failing to properly test
the blowout preventer system.
On December 6, 2012, during an investigation of
the veracity of the blowout preventer test by the Department of
Interior’s Investigation and Review Unit, ADDINGTON
lied and told investigators the false chart he provided inspectors was a
test of the chart recorder and that the inspectors mistakenly retrieved
the wrong pressure chart from the files when in truth and in fact he
knew that he had the blowout preventer pressure test chart fabricated
and personally presented the chart to inspectors as the actual test
record for the platform’s blowout preventer system.
If convicted, ADDINGTON faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 5 years per count and/or a maximum fine of $250,000 per count.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office praised the work of the
Department of Interior-Office of Inspector General (Energy
Investigations Unit) with assistance from the Investigations and Review
Unit, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and the
Environmental Protection Agency-Criminal Investigation Division in
investigating this matter. Assistant United States Attorney Emily K.
Greenfield of the United States Attorney’s Office’s National Security
Unit is in charge of this prosecution.