Gulf coast communities remain at risk for the devastating consequences of another oil spill because the safety-deficient culture of the oil industry has not been fully corrected since the BP oil spill, says a new report by the National Academy of Engineering.

The Academy, a nonprofit group of engineering professionals that advises the federal government on a spectrum of technical issues, says that drilling safety has improved somewhat in the Gulf of Mexico since the BP oil spill erupted in April of last year, but critical safety measures that would make another spill unlikely are still missing.

Funded by the Department of the Interior, the Academy’s study of the Deepwater Horizon disaster asserts that “companies involved in offshore drilling should take a ‘system safety’ approach to anticipating and managing possible dangers at every level of operation — from ensuring the integrity of wells to designing blowout preventers that function ‘under all foreseeable conditions.’”

The blowout preventer (BOP) that topped BP’s Macondo well was supposed to regulate the erratic pressures and uncontrolled flow of oil and gas pushing upward from the reservoir. Blowout preventers in general are so critical to the safety of the crew, the oil rig, and the environment that they are supposed to be fail-safe.

Yet in BP’s case, federal investigators found that the Macondo well blowout preventer had at least four significant problems, including a hydraulic leak and a dead battery that failed to activate the “deadman” trigger, which likely contributed to the system’s failure. Still other backups that should have stemmed the oil flow also failed. These flaws, coupled with BP’s failure to properly conduct required pressure tests on the BOP, resulted in a disaster.

The Engineering Academy also recommended adopting “an enhanced regulatory approach” that would “combine strong industry safety goals with mandatory oversight at critical points during drilling operations.” Ideally, oversight of regulations governing drilling safety would become the responsibility of a single government agency instead of being spread out across agencies with overlapping authority as it currently is, the Academy recommended.

Despite some improvements made after the BP oil spill, many critics say offshore drilling regulation and enforcement remains woefully inadequate.

“It’s back to business as usual as if the BP disaster never happened,” one environmental attorney said in a statement. “The National Academy of Engineering tells us that deep water drilling still has a high risk of disaster that the culture of corner-cutting in the industry and lax oversight by government haven’t changed. That means that the fishing communities and all the jobs in tourism and recreation in the Gulf region are at risk,” he added.

Source:

National Academy of Engineering
Environmental News Service
Earthjustice

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