BP 'missed big hazards' before Gulf oil spill

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

BP 'missed big hazards' before Gulf oil spill

Associated Press in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 24 July 2012 08.28 BST

BP focused too much on the little details of personal worker safety instead of the big systemic hazards that led to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill and was not as strict on overall safety when drilling rigs involved other companies that they hired, a US government safety panel has concluded.

Eleven workers were killed in the April 2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig and about 757m litres of oil flowed into the Gulf from the blown-out Macondo well. The company had the lease on the well, but the drilling rig was owned and operated by another company and BP has blamed drilling contractor Transocean.

That contractor-owner split made a difference in major accident prevention, the US chemical safety board concluded in a presentation to be made at a hearing in Houston on Tuesday.

"BP applied lesser process safety standards" to rigs contracted out than to its own facilities, the safety board managing director, Daniel Horowitz, told the Associated Press. "In reality, both Transocean and BP dropped the ball on major accident hazards in this case."

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/24/bp-missed-hazards-deepwater-horizon

[2pooped2pop]

1. more like IGNORED Big Hazards

because they knew doing it right would cost big money. And the chance of getting caught in violation was slim. And if caught, well the profit would far outweigh the penalty. That, to them, includes deaths of the peons.

[dballance]

2. "Focused too much on the little details of worker safety" That's got to be a first.

It is obvious some party dropped the ball on making sure that rig operated safely.

However, I think a government safety panel really should never publish a statement like "focused too much on the little details of worker safety." I think they could have gotten the point across that BP was not giving sufficient attention to safety issues across the board without opening a door for corporations to now start the meme that the regulations for worker safety are so onerous that BP couldn't possibly comply and monitor those and the larger rig safety regulations too. Just too damn much regulation for businesses - we must roll some of it back.

Wait for it - those arguments will be made sooner or later. I'd say sooner in the case of civil suits. I'd love to be BP/Transocean's defense attorneys and put that government statement in evidence.

[XemaSab]

3. The people I know who have worked in oil&gas

say that it's possible to do your job so safely that no actual work gets done.

I will never forget the 40-minute all-staff safety meeting after one of the weed crew got bit by a soft-bodied tick.