“Poor safety culture” onboard Deepwater Horizon led to last year’s massive Gulf oil spill
April 23rd, 2011 - 2:29 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Apr 23 (ANI): The US Coast Guard has revealed that a “poor safety culture” and “safety management system failures” aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig had contributed to an explosion, which killed 11 and caused a massive spill last year.
In a report on the incident the agency criticised the practices and training of rig owner Transocean and its crew for allegedly failing to prevent the disaster, the BBC reports.
It also said that equipment was poorly maintained and alarms and automatic shutdown systems did not work properly, and added that the explosion occurred when electrical equipment ignited from flammable gas that had flowed up from the well.
“Deepwater Horizon and its owner, Transocean, had serious safety management system failures and a poor safety culture. Collectively, this record raises serious questions whether Transocean’s safety culture was a factor that contributed to the disaster,” the report said.
A Transocean spokesman, however, rejected the findings.
“We strongly disagree with - and documentary evidence in the Coast Guard’s possession refutes - key findings in this report,” he said in a statement.
On April 20, 2010, Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon had experienced an explosion while drilling a well for the British Petroleum (BP).
In the following months, over 200 million gallons (780 million litres) of oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico from the well, making it the worst oil spill in the history of the United States. (ANI)
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Tags: alarms, automatic shutdown, british petroleum, documentary evidence, electrical equipment, explosion, flammable gas, gulf of mexico, gulf oil, history of the united states, horizon oil, oil rig, oil spill, poor safety, safety culture, safety management system, shutdown systems, system failures, transocean, us coast guard