[BITList] BP’s cost cuts contributed to oil spill disaster

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BP’s cost cuts contributed to oil spill disaster, federal probe finds
 
HO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES - This April 21, 2010, image shows fire boat response crews as they battle the blazing remnants of the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

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By Joel Achenbach, Updated: Wednesday, September 14, 1:20 PM 
A 16-month federal investigation has concluded that BP’s efforts to limit costs on its mile-deep Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico contributed to the blowout last year that killed 11 workers, sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and created the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

The long-awaited report by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement catalogues dozens of mistakes, misapprehensions, risky decisions and failures of communication that led to the blowout and the 87-day spill that spewed nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the gulf.

The report also found fault among BP’s contractors, including Transocean, which owned the doomed rig, and Halliburton, which handled the cement job that failed to seal the bottom of the well before the blowout. But it says BP was “ultimately responsible” for safe operations at the Macondo well. 

One of the key questions since the disaster has been whether BP engineers or managers traded away their safety margin to save on drilling costs. The investigators found that BP management rewarded employees for cost-saving steps and did not reward them in the same way for increasing safety. The inquiry found five examples of decisions by BP that cut costs, reduced drilling time and increased risk.

“BP’s cost or time saving decisions without considering contingencies and mitigation were contributing causes of the Macondo blowout,” the report declared.

Communication failures were rampant. Engineers in Houston did not know everything that was happening on the rig, and rig workers weren’t informed of all the concerns about the well in Houston. The report criticized “BP’s failure to inform the parties operating on its behalf of all known risks associated with Macondo well operations.”

The bureau conducted its inquiry in joint sessions with the Coast Guard, which released its report on April 22, the anniversary of the sinking of the immolated rig. The Coast Guard focused primarily on Transocean and found that the company had “serious safety management system failures and a poor safety culture,” a conclusion that Transocean disputed.






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