The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Research Council (NRC) have published a report titled, “Macondo Well – Deepwater Horizon Blowout, Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety,” which details the lapses in oil drilling safety culture leading up to the Gulf oil spill, as well as the need for a better engineered blowout preventer (BOP). The NAE and NRC study was conducted at the request of Interior Department head Ken Salazar. The report’s conclusions support many of the stricter environmental and safety regulatory changes the Interior Department has made since the Gulf oil spill.

The report noted that over the last twenty years, oil industry research and development has focused on exploration and drilling, to the detriment of safety. Additionally, the Los Angeles Times reports, the “fragmented nature of offshore oil drilling, with different companies responsible for highly specialized tasks, means that few people on a rig may have a complete sense of the risks involved in the drilling operation.”

The report devotes a chapter to discussing the role that misplaced confidence in BOPs played in the disaster:

“Before the Macondo well blowout, there were numerous warnings to both industry and regulators about potential failures of existing BOP systems. While the inadquacies were identified and documented…it appears that there was a misplaced trust by responsible government authorities and many industry leaders in the ability of the BOP to act as a fail-safe mechanism.”

Currently, there are no standard safety requirements or independent certifications for blowout preventers.

Tags: BOP, investigation