The safety expert who chaired the US government’s investigation into the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster says operators should be held responsible for offshore disasters.
Professor Donald Winter told Energy Voice that the overall safety of staff, equipment and the drilling well itself is ultimately the responsibility of the operating company.
The University of Michigan professor, who chaired the US Government committee that invested the Macondo spill,
“One of the issues in the Gulf is that there are a very large number of companies all involved in drilling a well,” Professor Winter told Energy Voice
“We recommend that the operating company should be held responsible and accountable for all safety aspects as they are the only ones that have full access to the information.”
Watch our interview with Professor Winter below
However, getting operating companies to take full responsibility for drilling activities was difficult as they often preferred to adopt a shared liability approach, he said.
“We have seen with Macondo that BP has successfully obtained financial contributions to their penalties and charges from other contractors,” added Prof Winter, who chaired the US Government committee that investigated the Macondo incident.
Following any major incident, such as Macondo, industry was faced with three key challenges – understanding the cause of the incident, implementing corrective action and ensuring it was remembered in the future.
Prof Winter, in Aberdeen to deliver the Lloyds Register Foundation safety lecture, said the oil and gas industry had an inadequate safety culture and urged those working in the sector to continually reassess everything and never forget disasters such as Piper Alpha and Alexander Kielland.
A good example of an effective safety culture was the US Navy’s submarine safety programme, which was implemented less than a year after the sinking of the USS Thresher submarine in 1963 that claimed 129 lives, he said.
“Subsafe has very tight controls over how things are done but it also has a very clear recognition of personal responsibility and accountability. It’s not based on financial analysis, we do it because lives are at stake,” explained Prof Winter.
The key to the programme’s success was ensuring the Thresher incident was always remembered, he said.
“There is an annual memorial service. At noon on the anniversary we ring the bell 129 times and recite the names that have been lost.”