Deepwater Horizon The Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling unit and Macondo Well explosion on April 21, 2010 was only the latest in a line of recurring issues and near misses in the high risk production of oil and gas drilling platforms. Most of these near misses and issues can be traced back to a common set of characteristics relating to system defects, safety violations that went ignored, human factors and a lack of organizational integrity (Kurtz, 2013). Comparisons from experts in two larger oil spill events, Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon, found mutual failures in both occurrences relating to risk management (Haycox, 2012).
Industry History The Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill on March 24, 1989, was one of the largest ecological disasters to impact the environment prior to the Deepwater Horizon explosion (Haycox, 2012). Prior to the Exxon …show more content…
Diversity between organizations that are supposed to be cooperating can make integrity difficult to achieve. Decisions that are seen as risky or non-ethical, but acceptable within an organization, are magnified in a crisis (Kurtz, 2013). Failure to follow industry guidelines and unenforced regulatory authority is a pattern that is apparent with this and other spills and near spills that have occurred. A backlog of safety violations was ignored and should have been enough to cause a shutdown of oil platforms or fine those involved, but neither transpired. In fact, those oversight agencies themselves were cited a number of times for taking gifts from oil executives, insufficient record keeping and ethical violations (Kurtz, 2013). An organization that had integrity would have placed priorities on safety. This lack of integrity sent a clear message to the field employees as to what was important (Kurtz,
Industry History The Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill on March 24, 1989, was one of the largest ecological disasters to impact the environment prior to the Deepwater Horizon explosion (Haycox, 2012). Prior to the Exxon …show more content…
Diversity between organizations that are supposed to be cooperating can make integrity difficult to achieve. Decisions that are seen as risky or non-ethical, but acceptable within an organization, are magnified in a crisis (Kurtz, 2013). Failure to follow industry guidelines and unenforced regulatory authority is a pattern that is apparent with this and other spills and near spills that have occurred. A backlog of safety violations was ignored and should have been enough to cause a shutdown of oil platforms or fine those involved, but neither transpired. In fact, those oversight agencies themselves were cited a number of times for taking gifts from oil executives, insufficient record keeping and ethical violations (Kurtz, 2013). An organization that had integrity would have placed priorities on safety. This lack of integrity sent a clear message to the field employees as to what was important (Kurtz,