Activity 2

1. Provide an analysis on what caused the Deepwater Horizon Disaster.

● The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion occurred on April 20, 2010, when the
Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit, owned and operated
by Transocean and drilling for BP in the Macondo Prospect oil field about 40 miles (64
kilometers) southeast of the Louisiana coast, exploded and caught fire. The Deepwater
Horizon sank as a result of the explosion and following fire, killing 11 workers and
injuring 17 more. The same blowout that triggered the explosion also resulted in an oil
well fire and a catastrophic offshore oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, which is regarded as
the world's greatest accidental marine oil spill and the country's worst environmental
disaster.

2. As a future Instrumentation and Control Engineer, what corrective actions would you suggest
to prevent such disasters and what would be your role in doing it?
● Engineers have the most difficult job in the field, especially when the work is allocated
and you know you are fully responsible and accountable for any issues that develop
during the project. To avoid such workplace disasters, we must always ensure that
everything we will need, such as instruments and programs, is correct and complete, and
when it comes to workers, we must understand their personal limits and recognize that
they require quality training and support in order to build the best working team and
achieve the best project outcome. As an engineer, it is not only our obligation to
supervise people and ensure that our responsibilities are performed, but it is also our
responsibility to ensure the safety of employees as well as the community that our project
involves.

3. What are your key takeaways after watching the film?

● Everyone must play a part in safety – including C-level executives. Executive teams
are frequently too distant from day-to-day safety initiatives to fully appreciate the level of
risk that exists throughout their firm. They probably go over quarterly or annual data on
incident or injury rates, but such knowledge isn't real-time and isn't enough to mitigate
risk. There was a clear lack of communication between the drilling team on the rig, the
 rig supervisor, and the BP executives who were pushing the effort with the Deepwater
Horizon disaster. Although it appears that BP executives let deadlines and budgets dictate
their safety decisions (which you should never do), BP would have likely stopped work if
they had been actively participating in safety initiatives from the start, informed of the
proper testing process, and aware of the potential risk.

● Always conduct risk assessments. This point may seem oversimplified, yet even the
most important controls can be overlooked during frequent inspections. BP sent
Transocean personnel home early before any pressure tests could be completed in order
to save money and expedite the project on the Deepwater Horizon, much to the rig
manager's amazement. Risk must be appropriately assessed at every level, and the
possible impact must be measured, in order to effectively prevent incidents. Well
integrity issues might have been found far earlier if BP or Transocean had undertaken
proper risk assessments on the Deepwater Horizon, avoiding the oil spill and explosion.

● Employees have the right to refuse unsafe working conditions. Several red flags were
raised throughout the film, and they should have been on the minds of more than just
Mark Wahlberg's character. The Deepwater Horizon missed these most basic essentials,
such as a functional telephone for staff to communicate throughout the rig, in addition to
bypassing required pressure checks. The ultimate goal of your company's safety culture
should be to increase employee participation and improve safety performance over time.
However, in order to do so successfully, you must encourage your frontline personnel to
disclose and report all safety issues without fear of retaliation. Your company's executive
management must accept that their personnel can and will refuse to work in unsafe
workplaces if controls are not established to limit dangers.

4. Attach photos of your reaction while watching and after you finished the film.

While watching…
After watching…