A GAPING hole in BP鈥檚 investigation of the Deepwater Horizon blow-out came under the spotlight this week in the first head-to-head meeting between company and US-government-appointed investigators.
A National Academy of Engineering (NAE) committee has been charged by the US Department of the Interior with investigating the causes of the accident. Committee member of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, told the meeting that the report failed to take into account factors such as worker fatigue, long shifts and a poor safety culture at BP. The company鈥檚 investigators 鈥渄idn鈥檛 address human performance issues and organisational factors which, in any major accident investigation, constitute major contributing factors鈥, he said.
BP鈥檚 report, released in September, pointed to eight failures that led to the spill. In a presentation to the meeting outlining its findings, Mark Bly, the company鈥檚 head of safety and operations, admitted that three of the failures were partially caused by errors in human judgement.
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A pressure test which should have revealed problems in the drill 鈥渨as incorrectly deemed a success by BP and Transocean rig personnel鈥, Bly said. And on three occasions, real-time monitoring data from the rig indicated that pipe pressure had increased when it should have dropped.
鈥淎 test which should have revealed problems with the drill was incorrectly deemed a success鈥
These indicators went 鈥渦nobserved or unrecognised鈥 for about 40 minutes, which 鈥渟ignificantly shortened鈥 the workers鈥 emergency response time, Bly said. BP鈥檚 report noted that 鈥渟imultaneous operations鈥, such as preparing for the next operation, 鈥渕ay have distracted the rig crew鈥. The BP report failed to address the 鈥渞oot causes鈥 of such distractions, Meshkati said.
The NAE committee鈥檚 interim findings are due this month.