Deepwater Horizon – Officer of the Watch

A Brief History of US Offshore Oil Drilling

September 2, 2013 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

The BP Deepwater Horizon explosion in April 2010 occurred after a dramatic, three-decade-long reconfiguration of how the United States and several other nations drill for oil. Technology, law, and geology pushed oil exploration farther from U.S. shores, as land-based exploration became less fruitful, and the global demand for energy ramped up. Oil production off American coasts began well over a century ago, but the move into deepwater and ultra-deepwater is a relatively recent phenomenon. This post presents a brief history of offshore oil drilling based on a relevant staff working paper by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The Probability of an Offshore Accident

August 6, 2013 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

Risk is the product of frequency and consequence. Accordingly, high consequence events which occur infrequently may contribute as much risk as frequent events which have smaller consequences. Estimating the frequency with which events occur is as important to overall risk as accurately predicting the consequences. One way of estimating frequency is to look at historical records. The information presented below are an abstract from the “Safety of offshore oil & gas Impact Assessment Annex I” working paper from the European Commission, published in 2011 to accompany the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament on safety of offshore oil and gas prospection, exploration and production activities.

Potential Costs of an Offshore Accident

July 16, 2013 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

The negative impacts of an accident are hard to quantify precisely, they will of course depend on the type, the scale, the time and the location of the event. In the case of an oil spill, its duration and the type of the oil will also have a major impact. The costs of an offshore accident will include costs to the operator (damage to the installation, lost oil, containment, cleanup, litigation etc.) and third-party costs to victims, to natural resources, the government and the affected individuals/businesses (including lost income). The information presented below are an abstract from the “Safety of offshore oil & gas Impact Assessment Annex I” working paper from the European Commission, published in 2011 to accompany the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament on safety of offshore oil and gas prospection, exploration and production activities.

Safety Factors of Offshore Drilling Accidents

June 20, 2013 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

The following article, written by Dr. Marios Patsoules, focuses on technical issues surrounding errors that may cause a major offshore accident such as the Deepwater Horizon and concludes that the “Human Factor” is one of the most important factors to be taken into consideration. This article is part of a series of articles discussing the infrastructures that are required in order to minimize accidents on offshore platforms.

BP Deepwater Horizon Accident Investigation Report

April 14, 2013 by Officer of the Watch 1 Comment

Filed Under: VIDEOS Tagged With: BP, Deepwater Horizon, Macondo well, oil spill

Lessons from the Deepwater Horizon Incident

February 14, 2013 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

The following article was initially published in SAFETY4SEA by Apostolos Belokas Managing Editor of SAFETY4SEA. On January the 3rd of 2006 the US Authorities released the investigation report of the M/T Bow Mariner investigation. It was a shocking thing to read throughout the report and realize that many items were found to be out of order. Let aside the key finding : Root cause of the incident was the failure of the operator to properly implement SMS. Five years later, same day the US Authorities released the preliminary report of the findings of the investigation of the Deepwater Horizon Incident.

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response from a Scientific and Engineering Point of View

February 12, 2013 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

NOAA released on early December 2012 an article regarding a collection of scientific papers about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America collection provides the first comprehensive analysis and synthesis of the science used in the unprecedented response effort by the government, academia, and industry.

Deepwater Horizon Documentary

December 2, 2012 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

Filed Under: VIDEOS Tagged With: Deepwater Horizon, Offshore Platform, oil rig, oil spill

BP Pleads Guilty to Charges Regarding the Deepwater Horizon Incident

November 23, 2012 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

Over a week ago Attorney General Eric Holder announced that BP has agreed to plead guilty to felony manslaughter, environmental crimes and obstruction of Congress and pay a record $4 billion in criminal fines and penalties for its conduct leading to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 people and caused the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history. The 14-count information, filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana, charges BP with 11 counts of felony manslaughter, one count of felony obstruction of Congress, and violations of the Clean Water and Migratory Bird Treaty Acts.