What caused the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that led to the deaths of 11 workers and a catastrophic gush of oil that continues unabated to this day?
According to a thorough examination by The New York Times, it wasn’t a single event but a combination of things. Regulatory agencies granted exceptions to rules, risks accumulated with anyone addressing them and the interests of companies operating on the rig conflicted, so the person with the most clout got the final say, even if the decision made the situation more dangerous.
One of the more amazing lapses was the government’s response when, more than five weeks before the explosion, the rig experienced “kicks” – sudden pulsations of gas.
What did federal regulators do? Did they demand a halt to the operation? Oh, no. They allowed BP to delay a safety test of the blowout preventer. Really.
Here are some of the specific things that went wrong, according to the Times:
– Deepwater drilling procedures are really procedures designed for shallow water that have been jury-rigged over the years;
– Federal regulators gave permission to BP to exempt the Deepwater Horizon project from a rigorous environmental review;
– BP managers gave engineers permission to use equipment that deviated from the company’s own design and safety policies;