BP's Disregard Of Industry Standards

Commentary By Ron Beasley

BP's Macando Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico was running way behind schedule and way over budget.  Deep water projects are expensive when everything goes right so there was a real temptation to cut corners - disregard industry standards.  Steve LeVine has received a copy of the preliminary investigative report and the conclusion is pretty damning.

Until now, public investigations into the April 20 spill
have asked what went wrong. But what one gleans from this report -- and
in particular
this diagram -- is that that may be the wrong question. Instead we
should be
asking, how did everything that had
to go wrong do so, and at the same time? For the well operators, the
implications are not good: Unless one violated standard industry
practice every step along the way, such a blowout
may have been all but impossible.

The report includes a logic diagram showing what had to go wrong.

(Click on the diagram for a larger image.)

For those of you not familiar with logic gates the AND function means both inputs must be positive and the OR function means that only one of the two inputs had to be positive.  If industry standards had been followed none of the inputs would have been positive and there would have been no blowout.

As you see, the chain of events starts with many moving
parts, then cascades out of control -- the seals on the head of the
well; the
tubular casing that's inserted into well as it's drilled; the cement
used to
seal the well and keep the natural gas under control; the "mud," a
thick, complex,
chemical-laced concoction used to lubricate and keep underground
pressure from
bursting to the surface.

Then comes a row of ORs: Do you have a failure to follow
correct procedures when doubt is cast on your control of the pressure
from the
reservoir?  If the wellhead seal fails,
do fluids from below reach the actual rig 5,000 feet above the ocean
floor?

Then come some ANDs. If the fluids do reach the
rig, and there is a source of ignition to cause an explosion, you get
the
blowout and fire.

In order for this catastrophe to occur BP had to disregard  industry standards almost every step of the way.  That's criminal!