BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling

BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and
Offshore Drilling
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Body...........................................................................................................................................3
Engineer risk and System Thinking.......................................................................................3
Importance of Non-Technical Skills and Organizational Behaviour.....................................5
Systems thinking tools and techniques...................................................................................5
Business value........................................................................................................................5
Risk Management...................................................................................................................6
Organizational maturity..........................................................................................................7
Portfolio Management and Organizational Culture...............................................................7
Portfolio management process cycle......................................................................................8
Portfolio alignment.................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
Every organization or tasks have specific systems to perform. This can be understood with
the example that an automobile’s system is to take people as well as things from one place to
another. Each and every part of a task or organization needs to be present so that systems can
carry out its purpose in an effective manner (Kim, 2018). With the help of system thinking
one is able to decide over various solutions available to deal with a specific problem. Hence
the main advantage of systems thinking is that it helps to take informed decisions and hence,
the end results are according to desired results (Goodman, 2018). In the below essay systems
thinking will be seen in relation to the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
which took place in the year 2010. The below essay has been written with an aim to analyse
about the Horizon oil spill as well as the reason behind this disaster. On the basis of the
reports published over this issue this essay will cover the reasons behind the failure of the
management as well as lack of systems thinking in the decision making process. To provide
valid arguments certain theories has been adopted related to managerial activities in order to
form the basis of the essay.
Body
Engineer risk and System Thinking
The massive oil spill which took place in the year 2010 floated for months in the waters of
Gulf of Mexico. This is considered as one of the largest marine oil spill in the history of
America as well as in the history of marine oil drilling activities. The oil drilling rig
Deepwater Horizon exploded as well as sank in waters which took the lives of 11 people
whereas 17 were seriously injured. This caused the largest oil spill in the water which was
nearly 4 million barrels of oil which was floating over the water as well as also damaged
Macondo well in the time duration of 87 days from the spilling of oil, and this oil spill was
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finally capped on the 15th of July, 2010. The United States of America went a step further and
filed a case in the District Court against the BP Exploration and Production as well as few
other defendants that were responsible behind this incident (USA Environmental Protection
Agency, 2017). Human error was also one of the major reasons behind this incident, which
can also be referred to as engineer’s error or risk because of engineer’s mistake. The
engineers’ team of BP knew that they were dealing with a very tough well and despite of
knowing this fact the engineers took the decision of using cheaper equipment, as well as
taking quick repetitive actions which were dangerous in nature. A couple of such wrong
decisions aggravated the situation and the end result of this came out in the form of this
disaster. Another engineer mistake which played a major role in this incident is that of the
blowout preventer which was supposed to control the leakage also malfunctioned (Hammer,
2010). The engineers failed to undertake systems thinking and as a result many errors
occurred like improper interpretation of the signals related to well as well as the integrity of
the safety system; not up to the mark modification was seen in the safety systems; problem in
the design of the rig; also there was failure to comply with the administrative controls which
were required in order to undertake safe operations; also the organization structure failed in
following the American Petroleum Institutes Recommended Practices 75 which is related to
the circulation work of the drilling mud (Velez & Liles, 2011). And the list goes on; nearly
twenty five errors have been mentioned behind this incident. Some of the errors are related to
engineer’s risk, faulty leadership, poor management, improper risk management, less
importance to safety etc. It is very important that safety is considered as the most important
condition in organizations especially in such set ups which can impose threat to human lives
as well as bring damage to environment (Smith, Kincannon, Lehnert, Wang, & Larrañaga,
2013). According to the “National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and
Offshore Drilling” said that this incident could have been prevented or at least its impact
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