Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Offshore Drilling Safety

This book examines the causes of the blowout and provides a series of recommendations, for both the oil and gas industry and government regulators, intended to reduce the likelihood and impact of any future losses of well control during offshore drilling. This book will be of interest to professionals in the oil and gas industry, government decision makers, environmental advocacy groups, and others who seek an understanding of the processes involved in order to ensure safety in undertakings of this nature.

According to this report, 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– in order to reduce the risk of another accident as catastrophic as the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. In addition, an enhanced regulatory approach should combine strong industry safety goals with mandatory oversight at critical points during drilling operations.
Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout discusses ultimate responsibility and accountability for well integrity and safety of offshore equipment, formal system safety education and training of personnel engaged in offshore drilling, and guidelines that should be established so that well designs incorporate protection against the various credible risks associated with the drilling and abandonment process.

Contents
Summary
1 Introduction
Challenges in Designing and Constructing Offshore Wells
Several Past Accidents Caused by Blowouts
History of Macondo Well Before the Blowout
Committee’s Approach to Its Task
Other Investigations
2 Well Design and Construction
Overview of the Macondo Well Plan
Findings
Observations
Recommendations
3 Blowout Preventer System
BOP System for Deepwater Horizon
Areas of Investigation
Findings
Observations
Recommendations
4 Mobile Offshore Drilling Units
Deepwater Horizon Rig
Findings
Observations
Recommendations
5 Industry Management of Offshore Drilling
Safety Culture
Recommendations
6 Regulatory Reform
Regulation of U.S. Offshore Drilling Before the Macondo Well Blowout,
DOI’s Safety and Environmental Management Systems
Goal-Oriented Risk Management Regulatory Systems
Recommendations
7 Concluding Comments
References
APPENDICES
A Statement of Task
B Public Agendas of the Committee on the Analysis of Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future
C Findings, Observations, and Recommendations
D Calculating the Differential Pressure at the Start of the Negative Test and the Quality of Foam Cement
Study Committee Biographical Information

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