Case study

Deepwater Horizon?

The night of 20 April 2010, laid out as a map. Open a branch to read it. Every line comes from Chapter 1 of the book.

Deepwater Horizon Case Study

Source: What Are We Missing?, Chapter 1: The Foundations of Critical Thinking, section “The Cost of Analytical Failure”.

  • A 33,000-ton Transocean semisubmersible drilling rig, built for $350 million, its derrick rising more than twenty storeys above the top deck.
  • Stationed over Mississippi Canyon Block 252, in 4,992 feet of water, completing BP's Macondo well.
  • Macondo was budgeted at $96.2 million and 51 days of work. By 20 April it was almost six weeks behind schedule and more than $58 million over budget.
  • The crew called it “the well from hell”.
  • About 126 people aboard, roughly 80 of them Transocean employees, working twelve-hour shifts, three weeks on and three weeks off.
  • Key personnelJimmy Harrell, offshore installation manager. Captain Curt Kuchta, the rig's master. Randy Ezell, senior toolpusher. Robert Kaluza (day) and Don Vidrine (night), BP's well site leaders.
  • The rig had not had a single lost-time incident in seven years.
  • 5.45 a.m.A Halliburton cementing engineer e-mails Houston: “We have completed the job and it went well.”
  • 7.30 a.m.The team judges the cement job sound enough that the Schlumberger cement-evaluation crew can be sent home. They leave on the 11.00 a.m. helicopter, saving the $128,000 fee.
  • 5.00 p.m.The crew begins the negative-pressure test, the last check of whether the cement is holding the well shut. The pressure keeps building back up.
  • 8.00 p.m.BP's well site leaders conclude the second test confirmed the well's integrity.
  • 8.02 p.m.The crew begins displacing the drilling mud in the riser with seawater.
  • 9.01 p.m.Drill-pipe pressure begins to climb, the first clear signal of a kick. Nobody reads it.
  • 9.40 p.m.Drilling mud spews from the rotary onto the rig floor. The crew starts closing the blowout preventer.
  • 9.49 p.m.The gas finds an ignition source. Explosions follow.
  • About 10.00 p.m.Andrea Fleytas sounds the general alarm, “This is not a drill”, and sends the Mayday.
  • 10.35 p.m.The Coast Guard has its first accurate count: 126 aboard, 115 on the Bankston. By the 11.30 p.m. muster, eleven men are missing.
  • Jason Christopher Anderson, 35Midfield, Texas. Transocean toolpusher.
  • Aaron Dale Burkeen, 37Philadelphia, Mississippi. Crane operator.
  • Donald Neal Clark, 49Newellton, Louisiana. Assistant driller.
  • Stephen Ray Curtis, 40Georgetown, Louisiana. Assistant driller.
  • Gordon Lewis Jones, 28Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Mud engineer.
  • Roy Wyatt Kemp, 27Jonesville, Louisiana. Derrickhand.
  • Karl Dale Kleppinger, Jr., 38Natchez, Mississippi. Floorhand and an Army veteran of Desert Storm.
  • Keith Blair Manuel, 56Gonzales, Louisiana. Mud engineer.
  • Dewey Allen Revette, 48State Line, Mississippi. The driller.
  • Shane Michael Roshto, 22Liberty, Mississippi. Floorhand.
  • Adam Taylor Weise, 24Yorktown, Texas. Floorhand.
  • The rig burned and listed through the next day, and sank at 10.26 a.m. on 22 April, Earth Day, in 5,000 feet of water.
  • The well flowed for 87 days before it was capped on 15 July 2010. A relief well sealed it on 19 September.
  • The court distinguished 4.0 million barrels released from the reservoir from 3.19 million discharged into the Gulf. Oil contaminated 1,300 miles of shoreline across five states.
  • BP pleaded guilty to 14 criminal counts, including 11 counts of felony manslaughter, and paid $4 billion in criminal fines and penalties. Transocean pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Clean Water Act.
  • For the eleven deaths, no one went to prison.
  • In 2014 a federal judge ruled BP's conduct grossly negligent. In 2016 the court approved a $20.8 billion settlement. The total cost to BP passed $65 billion.

The full story, and what it teaches about critical thinking, is in the book. About the book