After Macondo: the lessons learned

By Tony Hall, CEO and founder of Welaptega Marine

Two years ago today,  the Deepwater Horizon drill rig  exploded and sunk in the Gulf of Mexico after a series of catastrophic failures.

A blowout of BP’s Macondo well caused a fire and explosion at Transocean’s rig, killing 11 workers and spilling 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

It was the worst offshore oil spill in US history.

Gulf of Mexico deep-water drilling was suspended for nearly six months in the wake of the spill.

Safety of rig crews must trump all

The greatest lesson is that safety of the men and women working on the rig must trump all other concerns, according to James Watson, director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

He says the U.S. government has made the most far-reaching reforms to offshore energy safety in history.

Sadly, all of those lessons had already been learned in other accidents and operations outside of US jurisdiction. This accident did not need to happen.

Industry is now required to meet strong new safety standards on everything from the design of wells to the way cement is tested to the way human and environmental risk is managed on drilling rigs and production platforms.

Welaptega helped with the oilspill response

Welaptega played a role in stopping the spill. Our 3D modeling cameras were used on site to model the dimensions of the leaking wellhead. This information was used to verify the size of the cap which stopped the leak.

Let’s hope that new safety regulations will take into account the experience of the Deepwater Horizon and other accidents outside the United States so that a tragedy like this will never happen again.