Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill
Letonya Rossi
MGMT/1115
Post University
1). Name the organizations which had a stake in the drilling operation.
The organizations’ that had stake in the drilling operations were BP Exploration & Production
Inc., (were the lease operator of Mississippi canyon block 252, contains Macondo Well),
Trans-ocean (chief contractors), Halliburton, (responsible for cementing operations).
2). Should responsibility for the accident be shared among the organizations? Why or why not?
Absolutely, there is a huge relationship between safety and production. Most organizations are practically interested in staying ahead of their competitors and making huge turn over, this is often seen in shift from safety of personnel and environment to a more profit oriented goal.
Hazards or risk as regards to safety of personals, equipment or environments while producing Should be reduced as reasonably practice in a work environment by planning.
3). “what is more important than safety”? Why is safety so important? Safety is the utmost impertinence for any organization, over the years in almost every industry involving production of any sort, where safety regulations, procedures and processes have to be followed, there has been a perceived conflict between safety and production. And processes have to be followed, there has been a perceived conflict between safety and production.
The energy sector is no exception to the growth of this perception. Considerable amounts of accidents have occurred which could have been averted by sometimes very simple safety checks and routines. Many a times, safety processes, checks, routines and necessary service
requirements may involve a need to shut down production temporarily to be done.
Safety is so important, the results may end catastrophically, (April 20, 2010). Management teams of organizations call the shorts and have more stakes in ensuring sustained and
uninterrupted production. Organizations are saved reputation damage, fines, Litigation and even share price drop that all could result when accidents or occurrences happen due to failure to heed safety precautionary measures.
4). Who was responsible for the safety of the rig?
Transocean owned the drilling rig and BP leased the land so they were both responsible for the equipment. BP in not reporting equipment failure and shutting down temporary, and
Transocean’s with not doing regular checks and maintenance on their equipment. Drilling rigs are in operation around the clock, and 3 crews are needed to cover each rig. (One crew takes the day shift, another the night shift and the third crew is between shifts, on days off). The
Leasehand performs general labor and maintenance tasks around the rig site, such as helping to dig drainage ditches and to grease equipment. Some rig crews do not have Leasehands. On these crews, the entry level position is the Floor-hand. Floor hand (aka Roughneck)
The Floorhand handles the drill pipe on the rig floor. Some rigs will have 2 Floor hands.
A Floorhand’s responsibilities also include equipment maintenance, mixing mud and chemicals and assisting other crew-members. Rig Manager: The Rig Manager is the senior supervisor on site and is in complete charge of the rig. The Rig Manager is responsible for the rig crews, the equipment and the overall operation. The Rig Manager’s direction and leadership keeps the operation running smoothly. There seems to be a lot of individuals that will be held responsible for the rig so I do believe it would trickle on down.
5). How can safety be part of an organizations strategic plan? When developing a safety strategy, the first determine the overarching objective. For safety there are two possibilities, but only one viable choice. Accident containment is an approach that focuses on accidents, hazards and unsafe behaviors. The goal is the elimination or containment of problems. Accidents are attacked and reduced by eliminating the acts and objects that put people in danger. Safety maximization (construction) focuses on positive safety results and levels of safe behaviors which people achieve. What is the environmental impact?
It's difficult to estimate. Because the oil spill happened in deep water miles from land, the oil spill isn't affecting the shore the same way the Exxon Valdez disaster did years ago. Some of the oil clumps together to form tar balls. These balls of tar can wash up on beaches and impact the local wildlife. Plumes of oil are drifting thousands of feet beneath the ocean's surface. The impact this oil might have on deep sea life isn't fully understood. There are complex ecosystems deep beneath the ocean that might die out as a result of being flooded with oil. It may be years or even decades before we know the extent of the environmental damage the Deepwater
Horizon accident caused. While rescue efforts are working hard to minimize the effects, it's clear that there's no way to estimate the harm this oil spill will do to the environment.
Reference: Fire and Blast Information Group (2012) Flixborough, UK 2012 [Online]. Available at http://www.fabig.com/accidents [accessed 10 October 2012
http://topics.wsj.com/subject/D/deepwater-horizon-oil-spill/6051]
Deepwater_Horizon_Accident_Investigation_Report_Executive_summary[1].pdf President
Obama’s Independent Oil Spill
Commission Report on BP’s Macondo Deep water Horizon. (January 2011
Links
Case Histories of Major Oil Spills
Deepwater Horizon Response
NOAA BP Oil Spill Incident Response
How the EPA Works
How Oil Drilling Works
Sources * Aldhous, Peter. "The worst environmental disaster in American history?" NewScientist. April 2010. (June 10, 2010) http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2010/04/the-worst-environmental-disast.html * Bluestein, Greg and Nuckols, Ben. "Gulf leak eclipses Exxon Valdez as worst US spill." Yahoo News. May 27, 2010. (June 10, 2010) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100527/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill * CNN Wire Staff. "BP document: Worst-case scenario -- 4.2 million gallons daily in Gulf." CNN. June 20, 2010. (June 21, 2010) http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/20/gulf.oil.disaster/index.html * Gillis, Justin. "Plumes of Oil Below Surface Raise New Concerns." The New York Times. June 8, 2010. (June 10, 2010) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/us/09spill.html * Gillis, Justin and Fountain, Henry. "Rate of Oil Leak, Still Not Clear, Puts Doubt on BP." The New York Times. June 7, 2010. (June 10, 2010) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/us/08flow.html * Gröndahl, Mika et al. "Investigating the Cause of the Deepwater Horizon Blowout." The New York Times. June 21, 2010. (June 21, 2010) http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/06/21/us/20100621-bop.html * Hammer, David. "Costly, time-consuming test of cement linings in Deepwater Horizon rig was omitted, spokesman says." Nola.com. May 20, 2010. (June 10, 2010) http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/costly_time-consuming_test_of.html * Lustgarten, Abraham and Knutson, Ryan. "Years of Internal BP Probes Warned That Neglect Could Lead to Accidents." ProPublica. June 7, 2010. (June 10, 2010) http://www.propublica.org/feature/years-of-internal-bp-probes-warned-that-neglect-could-lead-to-accidents * Persac, Nicholas. "Oil spill: worst environmental disaster in US history." lsureville.com. June 9, 2010. (June 10, 2010) http://www.lsureveille.com/news/oil-spill-worst-environmental-disaster-in-us-history-1.2272970 * Pritchard, Justin et al. "AP IMPACT: BP spill response plans severely flawed." Yahoo News. June 9, 2010. (June 10, 2010) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100609/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_sketchy_plans * Revkin, Andrew C. "Best Odds Are On Siphoning, Not Stopping, Gulf Gusher." Dot Earth. June 21, 2010. (June 21, 2010) http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/best-odds-are-on-siphoning-not-stopping-gulf-gusher/ * Viglucci, Andres. "Oil plumes invade a dark, mysterious world at Gulf's floor." Miami Herald. June 19, 2010. (June 21, 2010) http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/19/1690175/oil-plumes-invade-a-dark-mysterious.htm 