[QUOTE=MikeDB;37063]Had BP dotted every ‘i’ and crossed every ‘T’ to make this drill as safe as possible and this still happened it would be, then why are we drilling in water that deep if the equipment cannot handle the pressure.
But BP’s total disregard for every thing in order to make their filthy lucre is why their neck is on the guillotine.
BP’s Greed killed the Gulf.[/QUOTE]
This it it, in a nutshell. BP set the stage and played the tune that everybody danced to. Remember what was at risk, there on the Rig: Money. Lots of it. Money was used as a carrot and a stick so EVERYBODY would dance the way BP called it.
Vast sums of money create powerful dependancies. Think of all the money as being a source of electrical current. In this case, the power in this operation was immense, so much so that everybody who grabbed onto the bare wires of this operation lost their ability to let go. TOI became dependant on their contracts with BP. The OIM became siezed with his dependency on BP. Even the Drilling Crew became addicted to the money that BP was handing out, like a crack dealer to his addicts. Wasn’t it the Driller who had a will drawn up and taught his wife how to run their RV while on his last days home? Didn’t the Rig Mechanic say he heard the Toolpusher acquiese to the BP’s man to displace the riser prematurely by saying, “Well, I guess that’s what the pinscers are for?”
It seems like everybody got blinded by the money. Same dynamic which wrecked our economy, by the way, with the creation of sub-prime mortgage bonds and derivatives. Money Blindness is a real, powerful, potentially deadly thing. Terminal Greed.
Because it is so, and because BP held the purse strings on this entire operation, and because they were in a position to know both how money affects those they dole it out to, and what affect it would have on them, and what the risks were in cutting corners on this well, then I hold them 100% responsible for this disaster.
BP’s Greed killed the Gulf, and eleven hands, and wrecked countless lives.
Next time you are in the position of power, think about it, before you use that power to influence somebody to do something that otherwise, they would not do.