BSC wants fundamental safety changes after Deepwater Horizon reports
7 Jan 2011
Neal Stone, director of policy and research of the British Safety Council responds to the partial findings of the US presidential commission report into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill:
Merely ’learning lessons’ is not a good enough response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster and would be an insult to the victims.
The catastrophic explosion on the rig was a tragedy for the 11 people killed and their families and friends and our thoughts are with them, and with the many other victims who have suffered directly or indirectly. They must not be forgotten.
The US presidential commission report preview published 5 Jan identifies ’systemic failures’ and claims the disaster could and should have been avoided.
If the report’s conclusions are correct, the implications for deepwater oil and gas exploration, the management of health, safety and environmental risks and regulation are global and immense.
The ’lessons will be learnt’ mantra, which often follows terrible events, is not sufficient this time.
We must reconsider the fundamental principles that govern health and safety in hazardous workplaces and reassess the leadership skills required to effectively manage a workforce, especially ones employed in high-risk industries or processes.
The senior management of the main parties involved in the Deepwater Horizon drilling operation - including BP, Transocean and Halliburton - should and could have exercised far greater responsibility to ensure that the complexities of undertaking such a hazardous operation were properly coordinated and effectively managed.
This report is damaging on all counts: management, risk assessment, policy adherence and practicability, government oversight and technical competence.
It is critical of the ’time and cost saving’ attitude of the companies involved. This attitude, it is suggested, pervaded through the various systems of operation which led to weak management and an evident lack of responsibility for health and safety throughout.
The relationship between the companies and the government regulators is also called into question: when workers are exposed daily to some of the greatest hazards imaginable regulators need to be more vigilant. It is right and fitting that the effectiveness of the regulator, the Minerals Management Service, is placed under the spotlight too.
The environmental impact will not be able to be measured for years. As well as the suffering inflicted on the workers, their friends and family, the ripples of this disastrous and fatal mismanagement must force an already high-risk industry to seriously re-evaluate their structure and operations in terms of their welfare for workers and the environment alike.
To read that this ’could happen again’ should fill us all with both utter dread and an immediate and vigorous determination to ensure that worker safety is placed as the top priority and constantly reviewed.
[This week] also marked the publication of the UK report from the Commons’ Energy & Climate Change Committee of its inquiry into deepwater oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.
The importance of that inquiry in examining the effectiveness of safety measures and regulation currently in place and our ability to deal with a catastrophic event should it happen must not be underestimated.
Preventing future disasters is the number one priority.
