Years After Deepwater Horizon, Drilling Safety Breakdowns Put Offshore Workers at Risk
A critical safety system on offshore drilling rigs that's meant to prevent injury, death, and environmental catastrophe can fail in a myriad of ways, according to a Project On Government Oversight (POGO) investigation.
This system, known as a blowout preventer, failed in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. Blowouts are explosive well eruptions and blowout preventers are intended as the "last line of defense" in controlling and stopping them. POGO's investigation found that since then, there have been accidents and close calls where blowout preventers have failed, sometimes in unanticipated ways. According to federal data, in 2017 alone, 18 of 25 rig operators in the
POGO's investigation comes as the
Among POGO's findings:
* Blowout preventers may need to be able to control an eruption for an extended period of time. In a 2013 incident, a rig's blowout preventer seemed to help for about 14 minutes, but then the blowout resumed unchecked.
*
* Pressure tests of blowout preventers have been falsified. A government report POGO obtained cites an inspector from the
* In 2012, an expert with the
If a commercial jetliner was only as reliable as a blowout preventer, "I wouldn't get on that damn airplane if you made me,"
"This investigation provides overwhelming evidence that the Administration's plan to allow the oil industry to essentially self-regulate--literally by relying on rules it wrote for itself--is a dangerous idea, and will gut critical safeguards intended to prevent future catastrophes like Deepwater Horizon," said
"The federal government shouldn't have to relearn the lesson that complex technologies in dangerous environments need serious, independent oversight. Otherwise, corners are cut, and unnecessary risks are taken--causing tragic, preventable deaths," said Brian.
POGO's investigation is in three parts: an examination of how blowout preventers fail; an analysis of the Administration's proposed regulatory changes; and an account of the difficulty in gaining access to the industry-crafted standards that the proposed regulatory changes would give the force of law. In some of the episodes detailed in the investigation, POGO examined government reports and documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
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