...While British Petroleum’s (BP) cost cutting measures played a significant role in the tragic explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, a multitude of poor decisions, inadequate testing, insufficient communication, and culture that prioritized profits ahead of safety that were the chief culprits of the disastrous events that lead to the Deepwater Horizon tragedy (Achenbach, 2011). Although, BP executives made several critical decisions to save time and reduce costs that increased risks and comprised safety (Goldenberg, 2011). The company’s culture of de-prioritizing safety resulted in poor communication among staff and an overall lack of discipline related to adhering to safety protocols that enabled unconscionably poor decisions by BP executives...
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...naturales más grandes, y con consecuencias naturales sin precedentes, ya que el golfo de México es considerado uno de los ecosistemas más productivos en el planeta ()por su gran diversidad en especies marinas y sus cantidades de arrecifes que mantienen un equilibrio en el ecosistema marino de la zona. El accidente se dio el yacimiento Macondo, propiedad de una de las petroleras más grandes y reconocidas en todo el mundo, la British Petroleum (BP). Esta empresa es dueña de reconocidas marcas como Castrol y tiene oficinas en muchos países del mundo incluyendo una sucursal en Colombia. Las causas del accidente en la plataforma se le atribuye a una falla hidráulica en uno de los componentes más importantes de la estructura, lo que provocó la explosión, el posterior incendio y finalmente el hundimiento que aparte de iniciar el derrame de crudo cobró la vida de más de diez trabajadores que se encontraban en la plataforma. Más allá de las causas o fallas técnicas y de los posibles errores humanos que provocaron el derrame del golfo, este incidente tiene por detrás errores administrativos que de haber sido tenidos en cuenta, y de haber actuado a tiempo, se hubiera podido prevenir ya que el problema empezó desde las mismas oficinas de la BP, donde una mala decisión pudo terminar en incidentes como el ocurrido en el Golfo de México. El objetivo en este informe, es hacer una minuciosa investigación de cuáles fueron los...
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...DEEPWATER HORIZON CATASTROPHE Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore drilling rig. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill or the Macondo blowout) is a massive ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, now considered the largest offshore spill in U.S. history. Some estimates placed it by late May or early June as among the largest oil spills in the world with tens of millions of gallons spilled to date. The spill stems from a sea floor 10,000 foot deep oil gusher (MC252) that followed the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion. The explosion killed 11 platform workers and injured 17 others. Factors that contributed are: 1. The cement that seals the reservoir from the well; 2. The casing system, which seals the well bore; 3. The pressure tests to confirm the well is sealed; 4. The execution of procedures to detect and control hydrocarbons in the well, including the use of the BOP; 5. The BOP Emergency Disconnect System, which can be activated by pushing a button at multiple locations on the rig; 6. The automatic closure of the BOP after its connection is lost with the rig; and 7. Features in the BOP to allow Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) to close the BOP and thereby seal the well at the seabed after a blow out. A failure of the cement plug was found contributed to the blowing of an exploration. As far as...
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...estimate has been largely supported and accepted. The spill lasted for 87 days before workers finally sealed the leak, but by that time, more than 4 million barrels of oil had been released into the gulf. The BP oilrig, owned by Transocean, Deepwater Horizon had been in operation in the Gulf of Mexico since February 2001. The rig was valued at more than $560 million dollars and worked on many different wells in the gulf. The last well it operated on was the Macondo well. It was this well that the oil spill came from and was brought about by several preventable errors on the part of BP and Transocean management and employees. The Deepwater Horizon vessel was an exploratory rig assigned the duty of finding oil, reporting it, and capping the well for another extracting type rig to come in and harvest the oil. While drilling the well, the rig encountered pockets of natural gas buildups where it was drilling. A week prior to the fatal explosion, Horizon encountered one of these pockets and the natural gas began to rise up the drill bore and began surfacing on the rig platform. When this happened, an immediate freeze was put on all activities to prevent an explosion. These same events would eventually play a part in the explosions aboard Horizon. A second major factor was the cementing process. When the well was being prepared for closure so another rig could use it in the future, the team...
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...Depot in the UK in 2005 and at the Deepwater Horizon Drilling Rig in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The purpose of the case study is to provided analysis framework of the two cases and compare and contrast the root causes of the incidents and responses taken to the emergencies, the study will identify common themes and lessons learned from the incidents. In particular, issues relating to inherent safety of the design, operating procedures, human factors and the preparedness for protection of staff and emergency responders. Overview Both Buncefield & Deepwater Horizon fall within the oil and gas industry and the study identifies findings that are lacking within a multibillion dollar industry and which could and should have been prevented. Early in the morning of Sunday the 11th December 2005 an explosion, followed by a fire engulfed the Buncefield fuel storage depot, the fire was to turn out as Britain’s biggest peacetime blaze. Unleaded fuel was being pumped into one of the storage tanks on the site, safeguards on the tanks failed, none of the duty staff were aware that the capacity of the tank had been breached. The site is situated near the town of Hemel Hempstead, 25 miles northwest of London; it is sited in a residential and small industrial business area. The site and surrounding area was destroyed, there were casualties but no loss of life. On the 20th April 2010 a catastrophic explosion occurred and tore through the Deepwater Horrizon Drilling Rig, which at the...
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...British Petroleum Communication Problems inside BP Submitted by: Date: December 4, 2014 Memo 12/4/14 Jeff Lewis Metropolitan State University of Denver 890 Auraria Parkway Denver, CO 80204 Dear Jeff: Enclosed is my report on British Petroleum and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This report shows how BP cut corners to expedite construction and save millions of dollars. As a result, the biggest oil spill in United States occurred. Due to the reckless conduct of BP, the corners cut by the people in charge ended up costing them billions of dollars as well as endangering the habitat and wildlife in the area. After reading this report you will realize BP’s CEO Tony Hayward, all the way down to the engineers in charge of everyday operations were to blame for the worse oil tragedy in our history. Sincerely, Executive Summary This is a report on how British Petroleum has failed in many areas of business communications. It’s going to include 3 main points that will explain in detail on how British Petroleum had bad communication and how it ended up creating history’s biggest oil spill in the United States in the Gulf of Mexico. The 3 main points include: 1. Pre-Event Planning a. Anticipate, Prepare, Practice b. “Safety” Not a Core Value c. Responsibility of Employees 2. Expressing Concern and Wrongful Focus a. Slow in Expressing Concern b. Lack of Sympathy to...
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...dedicates to find, extract, transport, and commercialize oil and gas. BP is the fourth largest global energy company in the world and it is the largest producer of oil and gas in the United States with headquarters in Houston Texas. Since BP started operating in United States has been involved in many environmental and safety scandals. The most recent incident is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico near the Louisiana coast. It is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry and it has created a huge damage in the environment. In the morning of April 20, 2010 the Deepwater Horizon exploded; there were 126 members on the platform when fire engulfed the platform, although most of the workers escaped the rig by lifeboat and were subsequently evacuated by boat or airlifted by helicopter for medical treatment; however, eleven workers were never found despite a three-day Coast Guard search operation, and are presumed to have died in the explosion. The fire on the platform lasted for 36 hours and ended by the Deepwater Horizon sank. Two days later after the explosion a large oil slick was discovered at the former side of the platform, it was confirmed that a damaged wellhead was leaking. BP estimated the worst case flow at 162,000 barrels per day. Initial estimates by Coast Guard and BP officials, based on remotely operated vehicles as well as the oil slick size, indicated the leak was as much as 1,000 barrels per day. Outside scientists...
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...have led to increased prices of gasoline whereby alternative forms of energy production are sought. With this in mind, offshore drilling can be a viable option for satiating the need of oil and also to boost the economy of the nation. In this report, I am going to discuss how the current Deepwater Horizon rig explosion has led to disastrous oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico causing environmental problems and also discuss how the oil spill if resolved and with safe and secure drilling techniques, the economic impact of offshore drilling can outweigh the environmental issues. Concerning the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion on April 20, 2010, which escalated into a massive amount of oil spillage from the well reservoir as the oilrig sunk killing eleven crewmembers on board. The key players related to the rig explosion are British Petroleum (BP), Transocean, rig owner, and Halliburton. BP is one of the world's largest energy companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemicals products for everyday items. (“BP at a glance,” 2010) Transocean, the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor and the owner of Deepwater Horizon rig, provides the most versatile fleet of mobile offshore drilling units to help clients find and develop oil and natural gas reserves. (“A Next Generation Driller is INNOVATIVE,” 2010) Halliburton, founded in 1919, is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy...
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...10-110 Rev. April 3, 2012 BP and the Deepwater Horizon Disaster of 2010 Christina Ingersoll, Richard M. Locke, Cate Reavis When he woke up on Tuesday, April 20, 2010, Mike Williams already knew the standard procedure for jumping from a 33,000 ton oil rig: “Reach your hand around your life jacket, grab your ear, take one step off, look straight ahead, and fall.”1 This would prove to be important knowledge later that night when an emergency announcement was issued over the rig’s PA system. Williams was the chief electronics technician for Transocean, a U.S.-owned, Switzerland-based oil industry support company that specialized in deep water drilling equipment. The company’s $560 million Deepwater Horizon rig was in the Gulf of Mexico working on the Macondo well. British Petroleum (BP) held the rights to explore the well and had leased the rig, along with its crew, from Transocean. Of the 126 people aboard the Deepwater Horizon, 79 were from Transocean, seven were from BP, and the rest were from other firms including Anadarko, Halliburton, and M-1 Swaco, a subsidiary of Schlumberger. Managing electronics on the Deepwater Horizon had inured Williams to emergency alarms. Gas levels had been running high enough to prohibit any “hot” work such as welding or wiring that could cause sparks. Normally, the alarm system would have gone off with gas levels as high as they were. However, the alarms had been disabled in order to prevent false alarms from waking people in the middle of...
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...Deepwater Oil Spills Deepwater oil drilling has been an issue that continually bothers a great deal of people. Environmentalists are truly concerned with the effects that oil spills cause to the environment and species that live within the seas. There have been many spills throughout the years, but especially since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the Gulf Coast in 2010 that has gotten many concerned. Not only was the event in the news continually, but it was considered to be one of the worst environmental disasters in the United States history. Previously, the Exxon Valdez Oil spill was the worst catastrophic event regarding oil drilling, and I have paid much attention to that over the years, boycotting Exxon and recently learning that some of the original defendants in the lawsuit had died, waiting for a resolution of that incident over 20 years ago. The recent oil spill has been catastrophic, it killed eleven people due to the explosion, but the damage to many of the resident’s lives were unbelievable. In this paper, I will discuss the oil spills within the past few years, especially the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the environmental effects to the species of the sea, and the need for continual vigilance regarding this industry and whether or not it should even exist in this country. In 2011, there were four incidents of oil spills including off the coast of Brazil. In one incident, there was an oil leak, roughly 350 square miles, slowly making its way down 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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...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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...2012 British Petroleums drilling vessel Deepwater Horizon suffered an explosion, and then began expelling enormous amounts of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Although many different individuals and organizations attempted to help BP fix their spewing well, it wasn’t until July 15 that the vent was cut off. Through our research we have developed an analysis that examines the cause of the cause of the disaster, the event itself and its aftermath. We would also like to offer our recommendations on the subject. British Petroleum is an international oil company base in London and is one the nations leading oil and gas producer (History of oil spill). In spite of BP’s market share, as a company they have an unfortunate history of safety breeches including a 2005 explosion at oil refinery in Texas (Deep Water dDrilling). These accidents seem to be a cause of weak corporate safety culture and cost leadership (On average, fifty percent of management bonuses were awarded on the basis of cost cutting). The lack of proper safety practice and absence of oversight has ultimately resulted in infrastructure and architectural failure (Deep Water Drilling). As with any disaster, each party involves attempts to prove their innocence and are all too quick to point a finger at a party that must be guiltier than they and the Deepwater Horizon spill is no different. Although BP owned the oil, other companies had considerable interaction with Horizon; Transocean owned and operated the drilling...
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...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 can harm...
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