UC Berkeley professor Robert Bea says leaked documents suggest that gas hydrates probably contaminated the cement encasing the well, allowing natural gas to shoot up a riser pipe and explode.

A UC Berkeley professor who is conducting an informal assessment of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead blast said Tuesday that BP documents leaked to him indicate that contaminants in cement encasing the well were the initial cause of the explosion that led to the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Robert Bea, a UC Berkeley professor who directs the school’s Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, said the flaw led to natural gas shooting up a riser pipe from the wellhead to the rig above, where it exploded. Eleven workers are missing and presumed dead from the accident, which has led to a leak of 210,000 gallons of oil a day.

Bea said that the cement was tainted with the same slushy gas hydrate that scuttled BP’s plan to contain the oil with a giant box last week.

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