Deepwater Oil Spill: Exploring the Causes, Risks, and Response to the Environmental Disaster

In this report we will discuss about occupational health & safety and below are the summaries point:- The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was the largest environmental accidental oil spill in US history. The explosion and subsequent sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig caused the release of 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The incident highlighted the risks associated with deepwater drilling operations and prompted a review of risk management processes.

Running Head: DEEPWATER OIL SPILL 0
Occupational Health & Safety
Student Details
3/14/2019

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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Risk Management Process.........................................................................................................2
Background............................................................................................................................2
Response to the Disaster........................................................................................................3
Risk Management in Petroleum Industry...............................................................................4
Risk management Approach of BP........................................................................................4
Risk Assessment and Control.................................................................................................5
Oil Spill Risk Factors Identification..................................................................................5
Risk Analysis using Hazard Analysis................................................................................5
Risk Control Strategies of BP............................................................................................6
Progress of BP in Future....................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Organizations are facing various unsystematic and systematic risks due to different
kind of changes in environment and climate, political and regulatory policies, credit risks,
natural tragedies, and foreign exchange and interest rates. (NCSU, 2010).
There was an explosion and subsequent fire happened at the Gulf of Mexico in
Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig. This resulted in burning of rig and thus sinks into
the water causing the massive oil spill. This huge explosion resulted in the death of 11 men.
This incident is considered as the largest and worst environmental accidental oil spill in
history of America. It took around three months to cap the well finally on 15 July 2010. By
the time the well was capped finally, 5 million barrels of oil had flattered into the Gulf (EPA,
2019). This disaster described the associated complications and risks with deepwater drilling
operations. After some weeks of explosion, Interior Department of U.S appointed a
committee from National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council to identify
the causes of this accident and determine the measures which can be implemented to prevent
such devastation in the future (King, 2010).
This report discusses about the identification, analyses, evaluation, treatment, and
monitoring of risks associated with the deepwater drilling operations.
Risk Management Process
Background
In November 2010, the committee appointed by U.S department of Interior presented the
report of its findings. The findings of committee described three causes of this mishap:
 Old-fashioned structure of organization;

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 A prolonged scarcity of resources; and
 Lack of adequate technological proficiency (Cholan, Makin, & Smith, 2017).
According to the media reports of U.S, the exploding bubble of methane gas due to lethal
blast on oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was the core reason behind this accident. Also some eye
witnesses and previous month accounts of BP indicated oil leakage of thousands of barrels.
These facts show ignorance of some serious facts and lowest safety measures implementation
in drilling offshore oil well (Burggren, Dubansky, Roberts, & Alloy, 2015).
Response to the Disaster
Planning process of Oil Spill Response established an oil spill response strategy. The
strategy framework of BP included oil spill response framework along with processes and
actions of the project (Beever & Hess, 2016). Below is the figure which shows the process
overview during the operational phase as followed by BP.
Source: (Muscato, 2019)

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To assist Gulf Coast Restoration Organization (GCRO), BP board set up an extra
committee naming Gulf of Mexico committee in response activities and to evade the long
term costs. The committee along with GCRO explored various factors of health and safety,
clean-up processes, rescuing wildlife, compensating businesses and people, and to develop
containment and control strategies (Fowler, 2017).
Risk Management in Petroleum Industry
In petroleum industry any kind of such accidents cause several economic and
environmental problems and thus risk management in this industry mainly focus on safety,
health, and environmental issues (CG Aviation History, 2010). Risk management techniques
used by gas and oil companies mainly focus on maximising economic value and minimising
economic harm. According to Reuvid, risk management provides systematic and logical way
of dealing with ambiguity to the organizations and missing of proper risk management results
in downturn and financial losses to organizations.
Risk management Approach of BP
BP is a known multinational oil company having internal control system and effective
risk management to escape serious circumstances such as oil spill. All risk management
processes of the company are based on cases which consider location, volume, and size of the
issue (Driller club, 2018). Two core elements of BP risk management approach are:
 To deal with uncertainties and hazards, risk management activities such as risk
identification, prioritization, management, monitoring, and improvement are
performed on daily basis.
 Reporting of problems associated with risk management to support corporate
decisions and planning as long span strategy.

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Risk Assessment and Control
Risk assessment is used by the organizations to diminish the harms in any industry.
Risk assessment of oil spill includes identification of areas, activities, and resources that may
lead to oil spill incident. Oil companies realized the importance of risk assessment in 1980 to
avoid such incidents of oil spilling (Greenpeace, 2010).
Oil Spill Risk Factors Identification
Identification of hazard happening and the associated loss with the hazard is difficult.
But, the risk causes involved in disasters such as oil spills and explosions are likely to
discover. Transportation of oil across the ocean results in happening of most of the oil spills
due to collision, hazards to navigation, crew owner’s incompetence and negligence,
grounding, oil terminals presence, and heavy vessels traffic and depots. Extraction, drilling,
and refining processes also lead to oil spilling (Darrp, 2010). Other studies show degradation
of equipment or human errors are the most common factors of oil spilling. Some uncontrolled
factors such as weather, wind, tidal flow, current, temperature, and sea slate also cause oil
spills.
Risk Analysis using Hazard Analysis
After risk identification, organizations use several techniques of risk analysis based on
the organizations’ nature. Oil Spill Risk Analysis (OSRA) model is used for oil spill risk
analysis in this report. Workers who are working on the plant are the main victims of the oil
spill risks. Following model evaluate the oil spill risk due to the Gulf currents.
Oil Spill Risk Analysis Model
OSRA model is used for risk analysis by creating probability approximations of oil
spill occurrence. The model produces spill trajectories by integrating spill velocity in time

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(Cholan, Makin, & Smith, 2017). From the risk identified above, the main cause of oil
spreading at the specific location is the Gulf current that transfers the oil patches regularly.
OSRA Model for Gulf Oil Spill: When OSRA model is applied to Gulf of Mexico
instance, time-integrates an empirical wind containing drift using an ocean current field and
superposition of surface current velocities, and input to the model as wind field. To produce
the oil spill trajectories, integration is applied at time periods of 3, 10, 20, and 30 days for
probabilities’ approximation of oil spill contact. The accuracy of integrated fields: ocean and
wind current fields determine the precision of created trajectories in Gulf Oil Spill
(Greenpeace, 2010). Below is the figure which shows the oil spill trajectories on surface
currents in Gulf of Mexico.
Source: (Infocus, 2011)
Risk Control Strategies of BP
Effective risk control strategies limit the potential environment harm extent of oil
spill. After the oil spill disaster, BP used three risk control and containment strategies
naming:

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 Dispersant strategy;
 Skimming strategy; and
 Boom containment strategy.
Dispersant Strategy
Dispersant strategy breaks the droplets of oils in case of oil spills which helps in quick
decompositions of oil droplets. Spreading the chemical on the oil slick reduces the oil-water
interfacial tension to very less values and thus requires very minor quantity of mixing energy
to raise the surface area and disrupt the oil slick into droplets. BP used Corexit 9527A and
Corexit 9500 chemicals to disrupt the slick of oil into droplets as a risk control strategy. BP
released 2.2 million litres of these chemicals on the oil spills in Gulf of Mexico. This strategy
helps in removing the oil from the sea’s surface and thus stops drifting of oil to ashore and
contamination of coastal habitats (Muscato, 2019). Dispersant strategy also protects seabirds
that live or dive through the surface of the sea.
Skimming Strategy
This strategy is the least expensive and quickest strategy to skim the oil from sea’s
surface but it takes around one or two hour to a crew to reach the spill and use tools and
equipment to suck the oil from the surface of the water and place it in suppression tanks. BP
recovered around 187,000 barrels of oily liquid since April 2010. This amount of oily liquid
contains 19,000 to 28,000 barrels of oil (Fowler, 2017).
Boom Containment Strategy
This strategy is used to coral spilled oil on the surface water. It is related with vessel-
to-shore or vessel-to-vessel or oil cargo transfer. Out of all the containment booms, hard
boom suppression strategy is mostly used for rougher and deeper waters situations in order to
stop the further spreading of whatever on the surface (Darrp, 2010). Boom containment

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strategy is used by in Gulf of Mexico by BP and Government of US. BP deployed around
100,000 feet initially which are extended to 370,000 feet later.
Progress of BP in Future
Now, after this incident, the main question is regarding the functioning of BP in future to
avoid such incidents in future. To ensure safety progress in future, risk based performance
approach is adopted by BP and Government agencies. There are three recommendations
provided by National commission to develop new risk management approach:
1. Department of interior is responsible for developing complete risk management
program after consultation from international entities of oil-producing nations;
2. Risk based performance develop and provided by department of Interior should
facilitate individual, environments, and operations;
3. To protect the offshore environment and workers, department of Interior should
identify production, drilling, and emergency response standards. Also any kind of
insufficiency should be overcome by taking correcting actions by department of
Interior.
Conclusion
It is clear from the numerous studies and literature review that risk management is a
significant part of an organization’s function. Risk management in petroleum industry is
achieved with risk based framework tool. To evade the effects of risks, an organization must
employ an operational risk management context. This report discussed about the risk
management approach of BP after the oil spill incident happened in Gulf of Mexico. Report
suggested the main reasons behind this incident were outdated organizational structure, lack
of technological expertise, lack of resources, and coordination issues with other government

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agencies. These evidences show the ignorance of BP’s management towards safety
precautions. Therefore, some recommendations for BP to avoid such incidents in future
include development of safety plans and reporting systems that identify and assess risks
associated with the operational actions.

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References
Beever, J., & Hess, J. L. (2016). Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: An Ethics Case Study in
Environmental Engineering. American Society for Engineering Education, 26-29.
Burggren, W., Dubansky, B., Roberts, A., & Alloy, M. (2015). Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
as a Case Study for Interdisciplinary Cooperation within Developmental Biology,
Environmental Sciences and Physiology. World Journal of Engineering and
Technology, 3, 7-23.
CG Aviation History. (2010). 2010 – The Deepwater Horizon Drilling Rig Explosion.
Retrieved from https://cgaviationhistory.org/2010-the-deepwater-horizon-drilling-rig-
explosion/
Cholan, J., Makin, T., & Smith, S. (2017). The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: A Case Study
about the Development of an Evolving Communication Strategy. Retrieved from
https://www.marshall.usc.edu/sites/default/files/2017-02/BUCO-
Case_study_Deepwater.pdf
Darrp. (2010). Deepwater Horizon. Retrieved from
https://darrp.noaa.gov/oil-spills/deepwater-horizon
Driller club. (2018). Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 | Summary & Facts. Retrieved from
https://drillersclub.com/deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-of-2010-summary-facts/
EPA. (2019). Deepwater Horizon – BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. Retrieved from
https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/deepwater-horizon-bp-gulf-mexico-oil-spill
Fowler, J. T. (2017). Deepwater Horizon: A Lesson in Risk Analysis. Retrieved from
https://edmdigest.com/news/deepwater-horizon-lesson-risk-analysis/

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Greenpeace. (2010). BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill: Overview. Retrieved from
https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/research/overview-gulf-oil-spill/
Infocus. (2011). What Went Wrong During the Deepwater Horizon Accident? Retrieved from
http://www.infocusmagazine.org/11.1/eng_drilling.html
King, R. O. (2010). Deepwater horizon oil spill disaster: Risk, recovery, and insurance
implications. Collingdale: Diane Publishing.
Muscato, C. (2019). Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Causes, Effects & Facts. Retrieved from
Study.com: https://study.com/academy/lesson/deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-causes-
effects-facts.html
NCSU. (2010). How did BP's Risk Management Lead to Failure. Retrieved from
https://erm.ncsu.edu/library/article/bp-risk-management
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