On September 8, 2010 a report was released by BP stating that there were many factors that contributed to the explosion of the Macondo well which led to the death of 11 workers and a tragic oil spill in the Gulf Coast. This investigation which has been going on for four months was led by BP’s Head of Safety and Operations, Mark Bly. Along with him over 50 other researchers conducted experiments and tests to discover the reason for the explosion. It was determined from these studies that BP was not solely responsible for this accident and bias was not possible because the research team was made up of members outside of the BP industry who would have no reason to try to protect the company.
It was found that barriers at the bottom of the well failed to contain hydrocarbons that allow gas and liquids to safely flow through the well. This led to many other critical components of the rig to be ineffective, including the equipment to help stop the fire after the explosion. This has been the most valuable report thus far for explaining the rig explosion. BP and the research team plan to continue to provide any additional information which they are most likely to find.
-Ashley Luddy
I too have also seen this article and it is very interesting. After all the coverage BP has been facing the past few months about this oil spill, it was interesting and shocking to hear that they were not solely responsible for the explosions occurring. Though they have cleared their name slightly, many people still put their name out there to blame for the oil spill and for the explosions that have been occurring in the Gulf of Mexico. I would put a lot of the blame on BP because working with this equipment and these types of chemicals are very dangerous and they must know the repercussions for working with stuff like that. At the same time though, I have to lighten up a little bit when BP finds out that it was not solely their fault, but a chemical complication error.
ReplyDelete-Michael Sheinfeld