Root Causes of Gulf Oil Disaster

E-Mail to Congress:

Chemical and Engineering News says Congress wants to get to the root cause of the Gulf oil spill disaster. (C&EN, May 17, 2010, page 9).

I can save Congress some time. Here are the several root causes, including comments and suggestions:

1. We need oil to continually operate our automotive and truck fleet. Without oil, our economy will grind to a halt.

2. We can produce our own oil or purchase it from foreign countries. Our economic balance of payments requires that we produce our own.

3. To produce oil, we must drill for it.

4. Only drilling companies are capable of drilling and producing new oil. We have need to encourage those companies, rather than discourage them by applying unnecessary and picayune controls.

5. One of the controls, which is not picayune, was to force drilling into one-mile deep water. Environmental organizations forced this requirement and the Federal government (Congress and the Administration) bought it. Notice here the first responsibility leading to apparent negative results.

6. Drilling companies have been accommodating to the deep-water requirement, with use of new technology. Use of new technology inherently involves risks. Those risks are generally unknown or unanticipated aspects combined with subsequent faults of equipment and personnel.

7. The unanticipated aspect of the Gulf oil spill was the tremendous pressure and volume of the discovered oil. The bad news is that this has caused ecological damage. The good news is that there is a tremendous amount of new oil which needs to be capped and used.

8. The non-operation of the blowout valve, and the explosion on the rig, with subsequent sinking, were faults of equipment and personnel. These faults resulted from lack of judgment and shoddy work. This was likely non-intentional, since it was the un-questionable objective of BP to bring to the surface usable oil. Every discovery operation has inherent risks, many of which will lead to disaster. Recall the Apollo 9 disaster. In all such cases, Monday morning quarterbacks can ask, "What if.....?", which leads to subsequent improvement.

9. Congress should not be attempting to place blame. It should be considering how it can best help to produce oil with a minimum of damage. Notice that there will always be damage. It can be minimized, but it should always be recognized in the context that we need oil. A pundit has said we should be looking for other sources of energy. Why? We have just found a tremendous supply of oil in the Gulf. We need only to cap it as expeditiously as possible. It is likely that Congress cannot help in that endeavor, in which case it is best to stay out of the way.