Cindynics, The Science of Danger

Appendix 11Collection of Information on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Accident

A11.1. Sources of information

• – “Final Report on the Investigation of the Macondo Well Blowout” of April 20, 2010. Produced in March 2011 by the Deepwater Horizon Study Group (DHSG) made up of 40 American and foreign experts (academics, public services, consultants) independent of the owner and various operators;
• – Trente ans d'accidents : Le nouveau visage des risques sociologiques [LEC 16];
• – “BP ‘Deepwater Horizon’ du Golfe du Mexique à l’Afrique : un tournant pour l’industrie pétrolière ?” [MAR 10b];
• – La prise de décision agile : anticiper les risques grâce aux signaux précurseurs [MAG 17];
• – Deepwater Horizon (2016). Directed by Peter Berg. [Feature film]. Lionsgate: Vancouver, Canada.

A11.2. Elements identified in the final report on the investigation

• – February 2009: in application to MMS, spill associated with blowout deemed unlikely (page 18);
• – October 2009: size of the oil and gas field was undetermined (page 20);
• – November 2009: hurricane damaging Marianas replaced by Deepwater Horizon (page 21);
• – February 2010: a leak noticed on BOP. Failures in pod BOP could not be activated in case of emergency (page 21);
• – March 2010: serious well control event – formation fluids flowed in the well bore. The well was side-tracked (page 21);
• – March 2010: BP prepared a revised casing design for high pressure (page 21);
• – April 4–7: loss circulation occurred solved by pumping high viscosity ...