...A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BP OIL SPILL RESPONSE AND PREPAREDNESS PLAN FOR THE DEEP HORIZON – WHY DID IT FAIL? Toni Josina Elfrieda Beukes* May 2012† ABSTRACT: Based on events that unfolded in the U.S. in the weeks and subsequently months of the Macondo well blow-out, it is clear that neither industry nor government was equipped to deal with a spill the scale and complexity of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. As one of its key recommendations to President Obama for addressing the causes and consequences of the spill, the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in its final report, stated the need for “strengthening oil spill response, planning and capacity”. Industry best practice dictates that quickness and accuracy are key requirements for effective oil spill response and preparedness planning (OSRPP); yet it took nearly three months to seal the Macondo well. This paper is accordingly concerned with the reasons for the apparent failure of the BP oil spill response plan. This failure will be considered in light of current international environmental regulations on OSRPP and applicable United States legislation, whilst assessing the BP oil spill response plan’s compliance therewith. The study will also consider some theory in the development of OSRPP by looking specifically at risk assessment tools and applying key criteria to the BP oil spill response plan to determine its adequacy and appropriateness for its operations in the GOM. What...
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...Final Report on the Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout Deepwater Horizon Study Group March 1, 2011 The Deepwater Horizon Study Group (DHSG) was formed by members of the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management (CCRM) in May 2010 in response to the blowout of the Macondo well on April 20, 2010. A fundamental premise in the DHSG work is: we look back to understand the why‘s and how‘s of this disaster so we can better understand how best to go forward. The goal of the DHSG work is defining how to best move forward – assessing what major steps are needed to develop our national oil and gas resources in a reliable, responsible, and accountable manner. Deepwater Horizon Study Group Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout Disaster This Page Intentionally Left Blank Deepwater Horizon Study Group Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout Disaster In Memoriam Jason Anderson Senior tool pusher Dewey Revette Driller Stephen Curtis Assistant driller Donald Clark Assistant driller Dale Burkeen Crane operator Karl Kleppinger Roughneck Adam Weise Roughneck Shane Roshto Roughneck Wyatt Kemp Derrick man Gordon Jones Mud engineer Blair Manuel Mud engineer 1 Deepwater Horizon Study Group Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout Disaster In Memoriam The Environment 2 Deepwater Horizon Study Group Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout Disaster Table of Contents In Memoriam....................................................................
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...attacks and natural disasters today when compared to pre-Sept 11, 2001? A single answer to the question is no, the U.S. is not safer from attacks or disasters. The question contains a conjunction which requires two responses; somewhat safer from the terrorists; and not significantly safer from natural disasters. The supposition of the question is that man-made terrorist attacks are the same as the act-of-God created natural disasters. I take the position that they are both the same, each an act-of-God, one expressed through a person and the second through a typhoon, earthquake, or climate change. I agree with Peter Katel, the U.S. is experiencing a false sense of security through two unrelated views of terrorist attacks. The first is the threat from terrorist attacks from foreign nations or non-state actors. The the U.S. population readily identifies with al Qaeda, Boko Haram, or the Islamic State; groups with notional identities recognized through dress, language, or religions affiliation. The U.S perception of these groups is negative and all collective efforts should be undertaken to prevent their access to the...
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...A Behavioural Finance view of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster of 2010 INTRODUCTION The Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010 was the largest accidental marine oil spill the oil industry has ever seen. It claimed 11 lives and caused huge environmental damage on the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico by discharging circa 4.9 million barrels of oil. There have been numerous enquiries and studies into the accident to try to understand what happened, the goal of the enquiries was to establish where the fault and therefore guilt lay in order to ascertain compensation. This report attempts to apply key concepts from behavioural finance with a view to understanding the thought processes behind the decisions that were made. In the last decades there have been a lot of studies documenting the impact of psychological traits on the decisions made by managers. This report while touching on them, will not go into detail regarding the various technical difficulties encountered on the Deepwater Horizon and will instead focus on understanding the thought process of the various players involved. We will also briefly cover BP’s historical safety record as this will help us understand some of the behavioural factors in play within the organization. While BP was the principal on the Deepwater Horizon rig there were also other parties like Transocean , the rig operator, Halliburton, who operated in a consultancy position, Anadarko and Schlumberger. These companies played a part in the crisis and their...
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...area where Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill was located. Impact of The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Bioavailable Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons gave information on The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Which is the largest marine oil spill in United States history. It estimated the amount of oil spilled into the ocean the Federal government accepted estimate of 4.1 million barrels of oil and 7 million was supported by independent researchers. Furthermore, an estimated 2.1 million gallons of dispersants were applied at the ocean surface and the wellhead. This study demonstrated that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill impacted coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico and contributed to temporary increases in the bioavailable concentration of PAHs. Additionally, the data provide measures of potential exposures to PAHs in ecologically sensitive coastal areas, accessed by large human populations, which can be incorporated into ongoing studies in a variety of fields. Oil Impacts on Coastal Wetlands: Implications for the Mississippi River Delta Ecosystem after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill summarized the general knowledge of oil spill impacts on coastal marshes. Relative to the chemistry of oil and its related toxicity; the capacity of microbial processes to degrade oil and reduce toxicity; the responses of wetland vegetation, benthic biota, and marsh-dependent fishery resources to oil; and impacts on ecosystem services on which humans rely. Ecological Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill:...
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...BP Deepwater Horizon Accident Part 1(week 4) A Study of Strategic Implications of the Recent BP Deepwater Horizon Accident Date: Submitted by: Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed Student ID Number: H00032634 Chapter 1 Introduction History of British Petroleum (BP) Company British Petroleum is one of the oldest companies in the oil industry. According to BP Global (2010b), the company was founded in the year 1909 in the UK under the name Anglo-Persian Company. Later, in the year 1954, the company changed its name to British Petroleum (BP). Being in the gas and oil industry, BP conducts various operations including exploration and refining of oil among others. According to BP Global (2010), Bp is the largest energy company globally with presence in over 100 countries. Overview of the Deepwater Horizon Accident In the year 2010, BP experienced a Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster which involved gas release and subsequent explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. According to Webb (2010), the fire lasted for 36 hours and this was followed by leaking of hydrocarbon into the Gulf for eighty-seven days. BP admitted responsibility explaining that the accident occurred following loss of control related to pressure within the well blowouts in which a special type of is designed to keep constant pressure. Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon accident This tragedy impacted immensely on various BP stakeholders i.e. local communities, global customers...
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...a non-malleable image and reputation which present-day marketing strategies must overcome in order to effectively promote the ideals of industry leadership and ethical responsibility. BP is faced with significant challenges to its brand as a consequence of its widely-known safety and environmental policy issues. An explosion at one of its Texas refineries caused fifteen deaths, 170 injuries, and a violation of the Clean Air Act in 2005. Years of neglecting pipeline corrosion led to its violation of the Clean Water Act in 2006 when Alaskan oil pipelines leaked crude oil into the tundra. The following year, another BP spill occurred near Prudhoe Bay, leaking toxic chemicals into the tundra and thus killing wildlife and vegetation (“BP Gulf Coast Disaster and Recovery”). These incidents, however, were dwarfed by an explosion at BP’s Gulf of Mexico offshore drilling rig, Deepwater Horizon, in April 2010. The explosion caused the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. It resulted in the deaths of eleven people and the release of an estimated 210 million gallons of oil into the surrounding environment (On-Scene Coordinator Report). BP controversially responded to the Deepwater Horizon disaster by releasing 1.8 million gallons of the dispersant Corexit into the Gulf of Mexico. Corexit is a chemical compound that can produce adverse health effects for humans, including skin inflammation, fatigue, and cognitive problems. Additionally, it...
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...I. Executive Summery The evening of April 20, 2010 eleven lives were taken, and 17 others were injured. An exploration for crude oil, now remembered as one of our nation’s largest oil spills in history. A well control event allowed hydrocarbons to escape from the Macondo Well onto Transocean’s Deepwaster Horizon, resulting in explosions and fire on the rig. The fire, which was fed by hydrocarbons from the well continued to burn for 36 hours until the rig sank to bottom of the ocean. “Hydrocarbons continued to flow from the reservoir through the wellbore and the blowout preventer for 87 days, causing a spill of national significance” (Crisis Watch). The operations were controlled by BP Exploration & Production Inc., in which they held the lease contract as operators of Mississippi Canyon Block 252, which contains the Macondo Well. Deepwater Horizon exploration was to collect crude oil, one of the leading fuels in the world. After the explosion that shocked the nation, BP formed an investigation team that was in charge of gathering the facts surrounding the accident, analyzing available information and to identify possible causes and making recommendations to enable prevention of similar accidents in the future. The BP investigation Team began its work immediately in the aftermath of the accident, since gathering information directly from the explosion site was slightly out of the question immediately due to the horrendous events and lack of testimonies and vital facts...
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...and spilling between 3 and 4 million barrels of crude oil into the ocean. A commission set by the US president to investigate the cause of the massive spill found that management failures were at the core (Werdigier, 2010). This was further compounded by the lack of sufficient government oversight into the drilling of offshore oil wells. Furthermore, the commissions report argued that the failures were systemic and that without requisite measures, the events were likely to recur. The disaster however was not solely BP’s undoing but was as a result of multiple organizations’ failures. The pollution disaster was especially bad for the environment. These events led to the close evaluation of BP’s management which had sold itself as being driven by environmental safety only to be undone by this disaster and come off as a company more driven by the desire to cut costs (Chazan, Faucon & Casselman, 2010). An analysis of the events leading up to the disaster shows that BP had other major industrial disasters spanning from 2005. First, 15 people died and 180 were injured in an explosion of the Texas oil refinery where, since BP took over management in 1999, extensive cost cutting had stripped safety standards to a bare minimum (Murray & Trevor, 2010). The second, a year later, was a corroded pipe near Prudhoe Bay that burst spilling around 200,000 gallons of crude oil. Just like in...
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...British Petroleum’s Deep Water Horizon rig explosion infested the Gulf of Mexico, its surrounding coastline, and its inhabitants. The U.S. officials have labeled this incident as an accident. However, preceding events suggest otherwise. A causal argument attempts to demonstrate the believed relationship between actions and certain results. Due to neglect and financial greed, the livelihood of thousands was threatened. Transocean Ltd is the world's largest offshore drilling contractor. It rents floating mobile drill rigs, equipment, and personnel to oil and gas companies. The Deep Water Horizon oilrig was owned by Transocean and leased to BP when the explosion occurred. For three months oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico. Remote causes are events in the past that link to the future. An example of this in the case of the BP oil spill was the diminished work level of the organization that looks over the proper management of oilrigs. Due to the continual persuasion by profit-driven US corporate and financial elite, US government made it acceptable for the required work level of Mineral Management Service (MMS) to dwindle between 2005 and 2009. As a result, the safety regulations for workers and the environment were left up to drilling organizations. The lack of a constraining factor to stabilize safety resulted in negligence as the drilling companies found it cheaper and more convenient to assume that all operations were going well. As a result, the effectiveness of the rig blow...
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...BP’s Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: What Went Wrong Elizabeth D. Jones Southern New Hampshire University Student: 0811981 Abstract On April 20th 2010 the Deepwater Horizon rig, operated by BP, exploded unleashing millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico resulting in the largest marine oil spill in history. What makes this spill so significant is the fact that the spill continued unabated for three months causing the declaration of a state of emergency across several states (Bozeman, 2011). The purpose of this study is to highlight the significant issues of management and leadership within BP and point out how the poor decisions surrounding the spill deeply hindered their corporate reputation. Additionally, the paper will offer ways in which BP and those involved could have possibly prevented this disaster or have better mitigated the impact had the catastrophe still occurred. Managing risks, monitoring safety, effective communication and ownership of faults are all solutions that if implemented can help BP restore their reputation and prevent misfortunes like this from happening in the future. BP’s Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: What Went Wrong British Petroleum (BP), In the early evening of April 20th, 2010 uncontrolled hydrocarbons escaped causing an explosion on the oil-drilling platform Deepwater Horizon resulting in one of the worst environmental disasters in world history. Within 36 hours the massive oil rig, approximately...
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...BP Deep-water Horizon Oil Spill Public Relations BP Deep-water Horizon Oil Spill: Executive Summary The Deepwater Horizon oil spill or the BP oil spill was a disaster in the Gulf of Mexico that took place in the Macondo Prospect. Macondo Prospect was a BP operated project, and one of the oil spill disasters that has been considered to be one of the most destructive accidents on marine environment. In fact, it has been considered the most expensive and life threatening accident in the petroleum industry. The disaster was an explosion in a deep-sea oil drilling facility owned by BP Company, in which the resultant explosion caused the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oilrig, killing 11 people in the incident. The disaster let free a gush of oil from under the seabed, flowing for an estimated three months. The result of the BP oil disaster was indeed catastrophic not just too marine life, but also to all other sectors of the economy that depended either directly or indirectly on marine environment (Alexander, 2010). In what remained to be a disaster, the wellhead had continued to gush oil for up to 87 days before a team finally succeeded in July 2010. By this time, it was estimated that the oil spill had discharged approximately 4.9 million barrels, a quantity estimated to be 780,000 cubic meters. By this time, marine life had been put in jeopardy while a lot others had died, or been seriously affected. Apart from marine and wildlife habitats...
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...opened millions of eyes to the errors that can be found in the way oil rigs are set up. It also caused people to take a closer look at whose responsibility it is to make sure all the safety codes and procedures are being followed before a drilling plan in approved. The BP disaster not only drew people’s attention to the process of oil drilling, it also had a serious impact on the economy and an even more tragic impact on the environment and wildlife around it. It also provided a perfect example of the dangers oil drilling can pose if it is done in an area not prepared to handle the consequences. On April 20, 2010 an offshore oil rig owned by BP (British Petroleum) blew up, taking the lives of 11 people before beginning to dump dangerous amounts of crude oil into the ocean and coastlines of the Gulf of Mexico. The oil rig, known as Deepwater Horizon, is believed to have dumped more than 200 million gallons of the oil before it was capped off three months later. This number however, is only an estimate due to the refusal of BP to allow accurate measures of the spilt oil to be obtained by professionals (Sakashita). Although we have been dealing with oil spills for years, until the BP oil spill the worst oil disaster had been the Exxon Valdez spill in 1979. This spill, also in the Gulf of Mexico, was responsible for launching the huge controversy over the safety of oil rigs. This famous oil spill dumped around 11 million gallons of oil (U.S.). The...
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...Major SUBJECT: SOLVING BP’S PROBLEMS REGARDING THE GULF OF MEXICO OIL SPILL Here is the report regarding the oil spill catastrophe that resulted from the explosion of Deepwater Horizon, which took place on April 20th 2010. The damages caused by this mishap are assessed and analyzed in this report. This report also includes recommendations made by experts in the specified fields relating to solving the issues brought fourth by this aforementioned spill. Despite the horrific consequences that have affected the global environment, BP’s reputation and BP’s financial assets due to this oil spill, certain efforts must be made on PB’s part in order to maintain a healthy environment for all living organisms on this planet. The information gathered in this report explores the methods at which BP could engage in this restoration process. Different methods that can be used to clean up the oil spill will be investigated in order to derive the best possible solution for BP. I am grateful towards BP’s board of directors for accepting responsibility of this oil spill by admitting that BP as an organization was at fault. It is important however, that additional actions are implemented as soon as possible in order to restore the world’s environment back to it’s natural state and to fight other consequences that have resulted from the spill. I look forward to working with you in order to accomplish this goal. If I may...
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...It’s Time for the World To Have an Oil Change Prepared by: Nathan Banasek Submitted to: Betty-Anne Schlender Date: November 15, 2013 COMM 1101 Section 107 Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………...1 Environmental Impact…………………………………………….…….…2 Major Spills Occurring in Water………………………….………………4 Major Spills Occurring on Land………………………………………..…6 Cleaning up a Large Oil Spill…………………………………………...…7 What Can Be Changed…………………………………………………….9 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………10 References……………………………………………………...………….12 List of Illustrations Figure 1: An Oiled Pelican in Costal Louisiana………………………….3 Figure 2: The Exxon Valdez aground on Blight Reef……………………5 Figure 3: One of the many oil wells set afire outside Kuwait City……...6 Figure 4: A Boom on the Louisiana Coast………………………………..7 Figure 4: Shoreline Modification in Coastal Louisiana………………….8 Figure 6: Ships and Drilling Rigs Surrounding the Discover Enterprise9 Introduction The world’s dependence on oil is no secret. Feeding this addiction puts immense demand on oil companies to produce oil as quickly as possible. Finding large reserves of oil is a never ending quest for oil companies. Transporting oil is a major risk of the oil production process. This crucial step has the potential for the most catastrophic damage. Oil spills can impact ecosystems in devastating ways and decimate animal life in the area affected. The damage can last decades and sometimes the effects can be irreversible...
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