Productive pessimism

Five years and more than 20 major inquiries after Macondo, has the offshore oil and gas industry really come to grips with the intrinsic human behaviours at the root of most accidents? Drilling expert and author John Thorogood discusses the limits of hindsight, the pitfalls of optimism bias, and why the industry could benefit from safety approaches that are gaining traction in other fields. By Russell McCulley.

Various investigations and analyses of the Macondo accident have produced a general consensus about what caused the April 2010 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 crew members and led to the Gulf of Mexico’s worst oil spill.

But while the technical issues that led to the disaster seem clear, what is far less understood is why an experienced drilling team apparently failed to see the looming threat in the hours leading up to the blowout.

Hc Technology

Productive pessimism