Emily Earhart

English 372
March 23, 2014
Deepwater Horizon was built in 2001 by a Korean Company. It was the second off shore
deep water oil drilling rig made by this company. A year later the rig was updated with a
blowout monitoring system that received real time data from the rig while drilling; the data was
then transmitted to an on shore technician who could monitor pressure and hit a kill switch if
problems arose (Wikipedia). It was described at times as a lucky and celebrated rig.
(Washbrun). In 2009 Deepwater drilled what was called the deepest well in the world. The well
in the Tiber field has a vertical depth of 35,050 ft. below 4132 ft. of water (PennWell). This
rig being described as the lucky and celebrated rig along with being associated with drilling
the deepest under water well just a year before the explosion indicates it was not a flaw with
the rig but rather human and operator error. Faults of BP and partner companies, such as
improper safety procedures, inattentiveness of employees, and also unmaintained equipment,
lead to the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil leak that killed eleven people, injured many
more, and caused major ecological damage.
In 2010 Deepwater started drilling an exploritory well off the coast of Louisiana in the
Gulf of Mexico. During the final stages a malfunction occurred while the cement barrier of the
well was being created. This malfunction of the cement barrier allowed a buildup of gas in the
well that traveled up to the rig where it spewed out oil and wet cement muck which shortly
caught fire and exploded. On the rig at the time were 123 workers; 11 of them died in the blasts
and several others were wounded.
Upon the investigations, which there were many, every single one found that there was
failure to perform the supposedly mandatory once a month safety inspections (Wikipedia). The
federal Minerals Management Service, which was renamed in July 2010 after the oil spill to
Bureau of Ocean Energy, was in charge of inspections and regulation of off shore drilling in the
United States (Wikipedia). One investigation by Associated Press showed that repeatedly the
MMS had skipped these monthly safety inspections. When asked to provide the documentation
or number of inspections given, MMS changed their answers or provided incomplete
documentation. During their investigation Associated Press found that the blowout prevention
kill switch that had been added to the rig, which would be very beneficial to safety if
maintenance is kept up, was not being inspected and checked as it should have. The little
documentation of safety checks that had been done by MMS had citations for:
Two citations on May 16, 2002 for not conducting well control drills as required and not
performing all operations in a safe and workmanlike manner.
One citation on Aug. 6, 2003 for discharging pollutants into the Gulf.

One citation on March 20, 2007 which prompted inspectors to shut down some machinery
because of improper electrical grounding. (Associated Press)
These citations insure that the rig should have been regularly checked by safety
inspectors. The main causes of the explosion as stated above was pressure build up in the well,
that would have been detected by the pressure gauges in the blowout preventer. Incorrect
wiring to the kill switch and among other parts of the rig made it impossible to stop the
pressure build up which eventually made its way to the rig where it ignited into flames.
Along with improper safety inspections, BP was warned for at least a month by the
engineers about the casing of the well and the blowout preventer. The engineers informed BP
that the well casing might blow under pressure but BP proceeded anyways. They proceeded
without the MMSs knowledge, having informed them that they had no safety concerns. If the
MMS had done their own safety inspections every month as they should have they would have
caught this error on BPs behalf and the rig might not have blown up (Urbina)
Deepwater Horizon oil spill was tragic and had huge ramifications on the ecology of The
Gulf of Mexico and land surrounding it. It left 11 people dead and many injured. Clean up from
the leak the explosion caused is still on going in some locations. All these consequences could
have been avoided and, more importantly, the explosion itself could have been prevented. BP
had no reason to continue operating the well knowing that their casing had any chance of
blowing. If MMS did the monthly safety inspections and regulated BP as they were supposed to
they would have fixed the blowout preventer and halted drilling while maintenance was being
done. The choices made by all companies were life taking wrong decisions. There were many
opportunities to stop this event but none were taken which demonstrates unethical activity
throughout the whole process.