Casestudy Deepwater - Essay Example

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill al Affiliation The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. The Deepwater Horizon Spill commenced on 20th April 2010. It is also known as the BP oil spill or the Gulf of Mexico disaster with regard to the location of its occurrence. It resulted in 11 deaths and goes down in petroleum industry history as the largest accidental or inadvertent marine oil spill.
1. Name the organizations which had a stake in the drilling operation. Briefly describe each organizations role.
The organizations that had a stake in the drilling were BP, Halliburton, and Transocean. BP’s role was to be in charge of the entire operation. As for Transocean, it served as the rig operator. Halliburton was the contractor for the operation on the whole. Based on a report by the National Commission regarding the oil spill on 5th January 2011, it was discovered that these three organizations made an attempt to work much more cheaply; this triggered the onset of the explosion and thus ensuing leakage.
“Whether intended or not, majority of the decisions made by BP, Halliburton, and Transocean escalated the threat of the Macondo blowout while simultaneously saving them plenty of time and money.”The government along with many other organizations in charge of the case tried to get to figure out the truth about who is really to blame.
2. Should responsibility for the accident be shared among the organizations? Why or why not?
All the above mentioned organizations, BP, Halliburton, and Transocean should indeed be held accountable for the Deepwater Oil Spill accident. Supposedly, it was not intentional. However, there were severe consequences as a result and all three had an active role to play in it. Earlier on, BP released a statement stating that, even prior to the completion of the investigation by the commission, BP had incorporated substantial and adequate changes designed to enhance safety as well as risk management. To this, Transocean responded by blaming BP for arriving at decisions before the actual occurrence of the explosion and the government officials for conceding the decisions.
According to Halliburton’s report, it was merely executing the orders of BP when it actually injected the cement into the well’s wall. It went further to criticize BP for its undeniable failure to carry out a cement bond log test. Precisely, BP was accused of nine flaws. In my opinion, they should all be held responsible for the incident because each had a role to lay in it. The penalty should vary based on the magnitude of one’s shortcomings though.
3. Answer the following 2 questions as 1- "What is more important than safety?" and "Why is safety so important?" Include your thoughts on "being safe".
In my opinion, there is nothing more important than safety. Safety helps to keep individuals alive and healthy. In every organization, each operation or process should only be carried out in the event that safety is ascertained. For business, the issue of safety is not merely a meager issue to be taken lightly.
Businesses not only affect their internal environments but the external one as well, which is comprised of masses of people within and without the organization. The safety of the people around a business is solely a responsibility of the business. It is important that a business prioritizes safety above profit maximization, not only based on the factor of humanity, but also to avoid unnecessary law suits.
4. Who was responsible for the safety of the rig?
The ones responsible for the safety of the rig were Transocean and BP. BP was generally in charge of everything that went right and wrong in the operation whether there was the involvement of specialists or not. The entire undertaking was BP’s responsibility on the whole. This entitles it to be indirectly responsible for the safety of the rig.
More directly however, Transocean should have ensured that the rig was safe to begin with. This is owing to the fact that it was hired to participate in the operation as a rig operator. It was its job to see to it that everything concerning the rig was in place.
5. How can safety be part of an organizations strategic plan?
Safety can be included in an organization’s strategic planning quite simply. Safety measure should simply be enforced in the entire environment within and without the organization to safeguard people’s lives at the expense of everything else. This is a mentality that should definitely be adopted by managers.
In conclusion, the oil spill was indeed an unfortunate and unexpected tragedy. It should serve as a lesson to many other organizations which are ignorant towards safety measures at work.
References
Hagerty, C. L., Ramseur, J. L., & Library of Congress. (2010). Deepwater Horizon oil spill: Selected issues for Congress. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress. Read More