Two heads lead to disorganized oil rig thus to spill

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Forums > All Posts > Two heads lead to disorganized oil rig thus to spill

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2010-06-15 09:01 AM

LLBarry
Beverly, MA
Posts: 299

It has been mentioned that the BP oil rig had a system where two people were in charge and this led to confusion and inaction.

If you have had two bosses, has it lead to confusion and inaction?

2010-06-20 09:20 AM

Schmidt
Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 1058

Oil rigs always have a combination of company men and contractors on board. Concerning decisions related specifically to the well, the "company man" always has the last say. Contractors are expected to lend their expertise and will even argue a decision, but in the end the "company man" rules.

Regarding the BP well, I have read several blogs and forum posts in other websites discussing what might have happened. Much of it has been pieced together without the public testimony of the two key company men on board the rig at the time of the disaster. One pleaded the 5th before the MMS and the other claimed to be too sick. Nevertheless, I think that the Congressional letter sent to Tony Hayward prior to his testifying on Capitool Hill pretty well hits all the problem areas with the well on the head. It does not cast blame at individuals. For those techies that understand the oil field terminology, you can read the full transcript of the letter at the McClatchy website.

The prevailing view is that BP made a series of cost cutting short cuts, any one of which might not have proven disastrous. But the cumulative effect of several short cuts resulted in the "perfect storm"...and the worst case scenario that was unimaginable to many of the individuals responsible for putting together pieces of the plan without seeing the big picture.

The fault lies squarely with BP for putting together a corporate culture and work processes that encourage this type of risk taking. I'll close with this quote:

"We had too many people working to save the world..." -- BP CEO Tony Hayward discussing how the culture at BP needed to change when he took over the CEO's job. Quote is from his address to the Stanford University Graduate School of Business on May 12, 2009.

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