Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout

Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2012-03-02
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309221412

The blowout of the Macondo well on April 20, 2010, led to enormous consequences for the individuals involved in the drilling operations, and for their families. Eleven workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig lost their lives and 16 others were seriously injured. There were also enormous consequences for the companies involved in the drilling operations, to the Gulf of Mexico environment, and to the economy of the region and beyond. The flow continued for nearly 3 months before the well could be completely killed, during which time, nearly 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the gulf. Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout examines the causes of the blowout and provides a series of recommendations, for both the oil and gas industry and government regulators, intended to reduce the likelihood and impact of any future losses of well control during offshore drilling. According to this report, companies involved in offshore drilling should take a "system safety" approach to anticipating and managing possible dangers at every level of operation-from ensuring the integrity of wells to designing blowout preventers that function under all foreseeable conditions-in order to reduce the risk of another accident as catastrophic as the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. In addition, an enhanced regulatory approach should combine strong industry safety goals with mandatory oversight at critical points during drilling operations. Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout discusses ultimate responsibility and accountability for well integrity and safety of offshore equipment, formal system safety education and training of personnel engaged in offshore drilling, and guidelines that should be established so that well designs incorporate protection against the various credible risks associated with the drilling and abandonment process. This book will be of interest to professionals in the oil and gas industry, government decision makers, environmental advocacy groups, and others who seek an understanding of the processes involved in order to ensure safety in undertakings of this nature.

Deepwater Horizon

Deepwater Horizon
Author: Earl Boebert
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2016-09-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0674545230

On April 20, 2010, the crew of the floating drill rig Deepwater Horizon lost control of the Macondo oil well forty miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Escaping gas and oil ignited, destroying the rig, killing eleven crew members, and injuring dozens more. The emergency spiraled into the worst human-made economic and ecological disaster in Gulf Coast history. Senior systems engineers Earl Boebert and James Blossom offer the most comprehensive account to date of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Sifting through a mountain of evidence generated by the largest civil trial in U.S. history, the authors challenge the commonly accepted explanation that the crew, operating under pressure to cut costs, made mistakes that were compounded by the failure of a key safety device. This explanation arose from legal, political, and public relations maneuvering over the billions of dollars in damages that were ultimately paid to compensate individuals and local businesses and repair the environment. But as this book makes clear, the blowout emerged from corporate and engineering decisions which, while individually innocuous, combined to create the disaster. Rather than focusing on blame, Boebert and Blossom use the complex interactions of technology, people, and procedures involved in the high-consequence enterprise of offshore drilling to illustrate a systems approach which contributes to a better understanding of how similar disasters emerge and how they can be prevented.

Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling: Report to the President, January 2011

Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling: Report to the President, January 2011
Author: National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Dril
Publisher: Government Printing Office
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2011-05-24
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9780160873720

On April 20, 2010, the Macondo well blew out, costing the lives of 11 men, and beginning a catastrophe that sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and spilled nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill disrupted an entire region’s economy, damaged fisheries and critical habitats, and brought vividly to light the risks of deepwater drilling for oil and gas—the latest frontier in the national energy supply. Soon after, President Barack Obama appointed a seven-member Commission to investigate the disaster, analyze its causes and effects, and recommend the actions necessary to minimize such risks in the future. The Commission’s report offers the American public and policymakers alike the fullest account available of what happened in the Gulf and why, and proposes actions—changes in company behavior, reform of government oversight, and investments in research and technology—required as industry moves forward to meet the nation’s energy needs.

Macondo

Macondo
Author: United States. National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
Publisher: Government Printing Office
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2011
Genre: History
ISBN:

NOTE: NO FURTHER DISCOUNT FOR THIS PRINT PRODUCT- OVERSTOCK SALE - Significantly reduced list price Examines the relevant facts and circumstances concerning the root causes of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. Focuses on the technical, managerial, and regulatory causes of the blowout Related products: Unlimited Impossibilities: Intelligence Support to the Deepwater Horizon Response can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-020-01634-9 Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling, Report to the President, January 2011 --print format can be found at this link: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/040-000-00784-9 --ePub format can be found at this link: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/040-300-00001-5 NOAA Strategic Plan for Deep-Sea Coral and Sponge Ecosystems: Research, Management, and International Cooperation can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/003-017-00560-7 "

A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea

A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea
Author: Joel Achenbach
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2012-04-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1451625375

"With a new introduction by the author"--Cover.

Blowout in the Gulf

Blowout in the Gulf
Author: William R. Freudenburg
Publisher: Mit Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780262517294

Freudenburg and Gramling argue that it is time for a new approach. BP's Oil Spill Response Plan was pure fantasy, claiming the company could handle the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez spill every day, even though "cleaning up" an oil spill is essentially impossible. For the future, our emphasis needs to be on true prevention, and our risk-management policies need to be based on better understandings of humans as well as hardware."--Pub. desc.

Fire on the Horizon

Fire on the Horizon
Author: John Konrad
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2011-03-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0062063022

"A phenomenal feat of journalism. . . . I tore through it like a novel but with the queasy knowledge that the whole damn thing is true." —Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm and War Blending exclusive first-person interviews and penetrating investigative reporting, oil rig captain John Konrad and veteran Washington Post writer Tom Shroder give the definitive, white-knuckled account of the Deepwater Horizon explosion—as well as a riveting insider’s view of the byzantine culture of offshore drilling that made the disaster inevitable. As the world continues to cope with the oil spill’s grim aftermath—with environmental and economic consequences all the more dire in a region still rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina—Konrad and Schroder’s real-time account of the disaster shows us just where things went wrong, and points the way to a safer future for us all.

The Simple Truth

The Simple Truth
Author: J. Turley
Publisher: Brier Patch, Llcshing, LLC
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2012
Genre: BP Deepwater Horizon Explosion and Oil Spill, 2010
ISBN: 9780985877217

A novel based on the factual events surrounding British Petroleum's 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

A Sea in Flames

A Sea in Flames
Author: Carl Safina
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2011-04-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0307887375

Carl Safina has been hailed as one of the top 100 conservations of the 20th century (Audubon Magazine) and A Sea in Flames is his blistering account of the months-long manmade disaster that tormented a region and mesmerized the nation. Traveling across the Gulf to make sense of an ever-changing story and its often-nonsensical twists, Safina expertly deconstructs the series of calamitous misjudgments that caused the Deepwater Horizon blowout, zeroes in on BP’s misstatements, evasions, and denials, reassesses his own reaction to the government’s crisis handling, and reviews the consequences of the leak—and what he considers the real problems, which the press largely overlooked. Safina takes us deep inside the faulty thinking that caused the lethal explosion. We join him on aerial surveys across an oil-coated sea. We confront pelicans and other wildlife whose blue universe fades to black. Safina skewers the excuses and the silly jargon—like “junk shot” and “top kill”—that made the tragedy feel like a comedy of horrors—and highlighted Big Oil’s appalling lack of preparedness for an event that was inevitable. Based on extensive research and interviews with fishermen, coastal residents, biologists, and government officials, A Sea In Flames has some surprising answers on whether it was “Obama’s Katrina,” whether the Coast Guard was as inept in its response as BP was misleading, and whether this worst unintended release of oil in history was really America’s worst ecological disaster. Impassioned, moving, and even sharply funny, A Sea in Flames is ultimately an indictment of America’s main addiction. Safina writes: “In the end, this is a chronicle of a summer of pain—and hope. Hope that the full potential of this catastrophe would not materialize, hope that the harm done would heal faster than feared, and hope that even if we didn’t suffer the absolutely worst—we’d still learn the big lesson here. We may have gotten two out of three. That’s not good enough. Because: there’ll be a next time.”

The Human Factors of Process Safety and Worker Empowerment in the Offshore Oil Industry

The Human Factors of Process Safety and Worker Empowerment in the Offshore Oil Industry
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 119
Release: 2018-07-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0309473373

Since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill, efforts to improve safety in the offshore oil industry have resulted in the adoption of new technological controls, increased promotion of safety culture, and the adoption of new data collection systems to improve both safety and performance. As an essential element of a positive safety culture, operators and regulators are increasingly integrating strategies that empower workers to participate in process safety decisions that reduce hazards and improve safety. While the human factors of personal safety have been widely studied and widely adopted in many high-risk industries, process safety â€" the application of engineering, design, and operative practices to address major hazard concerns â€" is less well understood from a human factors perspective, particularly in the offshore oil industry. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a workshop in January 2018 to explore best practices and lessons learned from other high-risk, high-reliability industries for the benefit of the research community and of citizens, industry practitioners, decision makers, and officials addressing safety in the offshore oil industry. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.