Potential for another “Macondo” style disaster still exists

The final investigation report by the US Chemical Safety Board into the Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico says the potential for a similar disaster still exists.

11 workers on the drill rig Deepwater Horizon were killed in the explosion that followed the uncontrolled blowout of the Macondo well on April 20, 2010. The report states “Although there have been regulatory improvements since the accident, the effective management of safety critical elements has yet to be established,” Investigator MacKenzie said. “This results in potential safety gaps in U.S. offshore operations and leaves open the possibility of another similar catastrophic accident.”

The draft report, subject to Board approval, makes a number of recommendations to the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), the federal organization established following the Macondo accident to oversee U.S. offshore safety. These recommendations call on BSEE to require drilling operators to effectively manage technical, operational, and organizational safety-critical elements in order to reduce major accident risk to an acceptably low level, known as “as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP).”