(105a) Management Walks Arounds: Lessons From the Gulf of Mexico Oil Well Blowout

About seven hours before the Gulf the Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout of 2010, a group of four company VIPs helicoptered onto the drilling rig. They had come on a ?management visibility tour? and were actively touring the rig when disaster struck.

There were several indications in the hours before the blowout that the well was not under control, in fact that is was ?flowing?, that is, that the various barriers that were supposed to be in place were not working, and that oil and gas was forcing its way upwards from several kilometres below the sea floor. These indicators were all either missed or misinterpreted by the rig staff. The touring VIPs, two from BP and two from the rig owner, Transocean, had all worked as drilling engineers or rig managers in the past and had a detailed knowledge of drilling operations. Had they focused their attention on what was happening with the well, they would almost certainly have recognized the warning signs for what they were, and called a halt to operations. But their attention was focused elsewhere, and an opportunity to avert disaster was lost.

There is a tragic irony here. A major purpose of the visit was to emphasise the importance of safety, and yet the visitors paid almost no attention to the safety critical activities that were occurring during their visit. What were they doing? Where was their attention focused? How might their visit have had a happier outcome? These are the questions this presentation seeks to answer. There are lessons here for all senior managers who undertake management visibility tours in major hazard facilities.