[QUOTE=alcor;37071]Are you suggesting that the Government have no control on how offshore wells are conducted? Are Operators allowed to operate like the Mafia? Ant there’s no-one to stop them because the Gov’t haven’t put laws in place to control our behaviour? Is this what you’re suggesting?
Are the Gov’t in bed with BP?
Can TO make decisions for themselves? Yes or No?
If you’ve identified one of the failures tell us how you propose to fix it.[/QUOTE]
I’m saying that BP’s long arm of influence reached deep into certain personalities within MMS. Believe me that there will be investigations into the actions of those involved with giving BP their variances. There will be a huge house cleaning going on there. They will be held accountable for their decisions, and their careers will be terminated. We’ve already seen the head of MMS forced out. Within BP, there will be some sacrificial lambs given over for slaughter. I can only hope that their Board will be so chagrinned that they will demand a top-down change of management, and absolutely clear mandates that long-term sustainable, risk-mitigated operations are the order of the day, not just given lip-service. It will take a nearly completeover of upper management, but they can start by stealing top execs from other safety minded companies like ExxonMobil, and several of the Norweigans. Only time will tell if the BP Board has the foresight to enact all these necessary changes, but if they continue to circle the wagons and deny that this culture of greed is what drove them to make these poor decisions, then there will be another major incident. I can all but guarantee you that there are several Board members who are calling for the head’s of Hayward, Suttles, et al, but their legal eagles are telling them, “Not now, it will make us look like we are acknowledging their guilt.” Soon, Tony will be collecting his paycheck in a windowless basement and whining about where his red stapler has gone to.
I am saying that BP culitivated dysfunctional relationships within the power structures that were supposed to be overseeing them. I am saying that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I am saying that best evidence indicates that there are those in power within BP International that have created a corporate culture of profits ahead of safety and sustainable operations. I believe this evidence to range from their record on the Alaska pipelines, the Texas Refinery, a previous multi-million dollar incident in the GoM, the allegations about how the Atlantis is being operated without intact P&IDs, at risk of making this spill insignificant compared to the damage it can do. Years ago, I, a newhire with little real world experience offshore, was invited onto a Safety Manual Revision Committee, simply because those in charge wanted some “fresh eyes” to see if there were any practices that had been ingrained in the culture and needed to go.
The way to move foreward with HPHT Deepwater Drilling is as I have stated before, and BigMoose so intelligently lays out: Treat the risk the same way the US Navy treats the risk of onboard nuclear (pronounced new-clee urh, not nuke-u-lerr) power plants, and the way NASA treats their Safety Ops.
Corporate Boards need to put honor ahead of fast profits. Citizens need to hold their elected officials accountable, and demand legislators enact laws and create effective agencies which are the check-and-balance to the corruptability of profits. Ronald Reagan said, “Trust, but verify.” Everybody needs to be held accountable, and audited by third-party, disinterested persons or organizations. Checks and balances are the only way.
Will this ever happen? Honestly, I doubt it. This kind of groundswell can only happen if “the small people” actually give a damn and get up off their fat arses and turn out in community meetings, educate themselves beyond the partisan pipelines of propoganda which tickle their ears, elect principled representatives and leaders, hold them accountable, choose sacrifice over creature comforts, and begin to give a damn about what happens beyond their own noses. Cheap gasoline is an addictive drug which dumbs down the masses. I can only hope that we have learned from our mistakes of the past 10,20,30,40 years, because where I see us going, the world my grandkids are inheriting is pretty grim, grim, grim.
I hate to say it, Alcor, because I don’t know you, personally, but you are showing up to me as someone who wants to protect the status quo; the practices, attitudes, corporate culture that not only led to this disaster, but has tried to sweep the results under the Gulf. And when others, like Company Man 1, go after BP with a noose, I have no doubt he would go after ANY operator, entity, or person who showed this much callous disregard for the lives and safety of those under their care.
The only way to fix this is for anyone involved in the discovery, recovery, refining, and distribution of petrochemicals to resolve that there will be no shortcuts, no short-term, profit-only motivated practices, trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the regulators. Let’s face it, the best and brightest go to work for the majors, and those who weren’t first in their classes become “public servants.” This was true with the M.I.T. “Quants” that used baffling and dazzling risk management formulas that overwhelmed the SEC regulators who tried to understand what they were doing. Just because you can fool somebody into following along with your scheme and co-signing your bullshit doesn’t mean you are right. It just means you have more power to corrupt or blind or obfuscate. As a wise man once said, “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
You tell me, Alcor, how would YOU fix it?