Deepwater Horizon: Death Of 11 People And Dramatic Ecological Impact

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1. Executive Summary: Deepwater Horizon was one of the largest oil spills known so far causing the death of 11 people and a dramatic ecological Impact. Companies involved are BP as main operator of Macondo project, Transocean; owner of the rig and Halliburton; contractor in charge to cement the well. This paper aim to identify some of faulty decision making that lead BP to be the main responsible for this disaster to happen. 2. Problem Identification and Analysis: In the day of the explosion there were disagreements between procedures to be taken between BP leaders and Transocean employees (ref: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1000142405274870471700457526830243439579). Safety procedures was ignored, in the day of the disaster the rig crew received instructions for the procedure of temporary abandonment. There was no risk assessment done by BP before trying to implement the process (National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon …show more content…

BP decision on the construction and operation was focused by cutting of cost and time as the project was already over budget in 58 million and 45 days behind the schedule (Elkind et al. 2011, pp 105-132) remove reference. Over the years, BP adopted a culture that “reflected cost cutting focus, where employee performance evaluations were based on how quickly and not how safely they could deliver a well” (Smith, 2011), this type of motivation can lead to unethical behavior (Barsky, 208, p 64) where safety is put aside in order to meet the company’s goals. At this stage of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, BP should have learnt from the incident in Texas and Alaska, as safety was not priority in conducting operations on site and as result 15 people were killed and 170 injured at BP’s refinery at Texas and in Alaska 260,000 gallons of oil leaked causing the worst ever oil spill in that

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