Last checked at 
By Kristen Hays
NEW ORLEANS, Feb 27 (Reuters) - BP Plc took chancesdrilling its doomed Macondo well long before it ruptured in2010, a well design and pressure expert said on Wednesday in thesecond day of testimony in the civil trial over the Gulf ofMexico oil spill.
Alan Huffman, chief technology officer for Fusion PetroleumTechnologies Inc, said BP forged ahead with the well in 2009outside the margin deemed safe by the industry and regulators.
He said there was a "kick" in the well during one of manyintervals in drilling, which indicates pressure was unstable andthere could be a rupture or other problem. Rather than stopdrilling, the work went ahead with another interval.
"It is truly egregious to drill that extra 100 feet knowingyou could lose the well in the process," Huffman said.
Testifying on behalf of the U.S. Justice Department, Gulfstates affected by the spill, and plaintiffs suing BP and itspartners, Huffman said the well was "dangerous and fragile" and"they should not have drilled ahead at all".
In this first of the trial's three phases, U.S. DistrictJudge Carl Barbier will seek to allocate blame among well ownerBP, driller Transocean Ltd, cement services providerHalliburton Co and others, unless a settlement cuts thetrial short.
The April 2010 blowout caused an explosion that killed 11men and sent more than 4 million barrels of crude spewing intothe Gulf.
Huffman, a geophysicist who analyzed BP documentation of thewell's condition, said BP should have at least sought permissionfrom regulators before drilling without a safe "drilling margin"- referring to the required minimum weight of the drilling fluidcompared with the rock the drill was penetrating.
He told Transocean lawyer Kerry Miller that a safe drillingmargin was the "first line of defense" against a blowout for theoperator, which in this case was BP. "It is the responsibilityof the operator to determine those parameters and tell thedrilling people what to do."
On cross-examination, BP lawyer Matt Regan challengedHuffman's expertise, noting that he was not a regulator.
"You have never been to an offshore rig that's operating inyour life?" Regan asked, to which Huffman replied: "That'strue."
Huffman said he was unaware of any documented violations ofdrilling regulations on the Macondo operation. He said heanalyzed that operation at the Justice Department's request toopine on the way the well was drilled and how it applied toregulations.
After more back and forth on drilling regulations andmargin, the judge interjected, seemingly to clarify Huffman'spoint: "Is this a weakest-link issue?" Barbier asked.
"That is the practice I've seen industry-wide, your honor,"Huffman answered. "If there's a weaker zone in the well, youhave to honor that zone in your drilling margin."
Earlier on Wednesday, plaintiffs played an excerpt of avideotaped deposition of Kevin Lacy, former senior vicepresident of Gulf drilling operations for BP, who resigned fromthe company a few months before the spill because of what hesaid were concerns about BP's safety practices.
He testified that he was under heavy pressure from top BPmanagement in 2008 and 2009 to shave hundreds of millions ofdollars in costs and received bonuses for doing so. In 2009, histeam cut up to $300 million in costs and had pressure to keep itup in 2010.
"I was never given a directive to cut corners or to deliversomething not safely," Lacy said. "But there was tremendouspressure on costs."
Also on tap to testify this week is Mark Bly, global head ofsafety and operational risk who ran BP's internal probe of thespill in 2010.
The case is In re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig "DeepwaterHorizon" in the Gulf of Mexico, on April 20, 2010, No.10-md-02179, in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District ofLouisiana.
