The oil industry’s ‘Culture of Complacency’

Dr Bik - 

Last week, Dr. M and I attended a captivating lecture at Duke university, delivered by none other than the honorable William K. Reilly (co-chair of the National Oil Spill Commission investigating the BP oil spill).

Reilly was very well spoken, knowledgeable, and provided an interesting perspective on the Gulf disaster.

Some of the facts he provided were shocking: Because of the gushing oil, 40,000 Vietnamese fisherman were put out of work and reduced to standing in line for $100 food coupons. Hotel occupancy in the Gulf was at 30% last memorial day weekend as scared tourists stayed away. Europeans were canceling vacations to Key West despite the oil never getting close.

Reilly’s overarching view after the government’s inquiry was disbelief at this ‘culture of complacency’ which seems to pervade the oil industry. The two central mistakes at the Macondo well–Halliburton supplying faulty cement and Transocean failing to catch it–were “truly aggregious” in his mind. As the report to the president mentions, the gulf oil spill was “not the rogue blunder of a large company, but bad decisions made by 3 companies”.

This systematic industry problem, what he called a ‘culture of complacency’ , resulted in sloppy working practices with fatal consequences. The Oil Spill Commission tested Halliburton’s cement formula NINE times in the lab, and it failed EVERY time.

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