The buck stops here - BP Oil Spill Disaster - Gulf of Mexico 2010
When Tony Hayward became CEO of BP in 2007, replacing a disgraced Lord John Browne, he was taking over a company in turmoil. BP was still recovering from a 2005 fire at its Texas City refinery that killed 15 people, one of the worst industrial accidents in recent memory, and a result of Browne putting profits over safety. Most of all, Hayward would change BP's careless corporate culture; he pledged in an early speech to focus "like a laser" on safety.
In an interview before he was named CEO of BP in 2007, Hayward talked about the effect that the death of a worker under his command in Venezuela had on him:
“I went to the funeral to pay my respects. At the end of the service his mother came up and beat me on the chest. ‘Why did you let it happen?' she asked. It changed the way I think about safety. Leaders must make the safety of all who work for them their top priority.”
The explosion on the drilling platform known as ‘Deepwater Horizon’ on the 15th of July 2010, killed 11 men working on the platform and injured 17 others resulting in an oil spill, into the Gulf of Mexico, which flowed for three months in 2010. The impact of the spill continues even after the well has been capped. It is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. Instead of fixing BPs safety issues, Hayward will be remembered for presiding over the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.
BP Today
BP now has a new CEO taking over the reigns from Haywood, in his speech to the ‘Sothern Governors’ Association in Birmingham Alabama on the 29th of August 2010, Bob Dudley recognised the work his team was doing to fix the mistakes of the oil spill. He stated that:
“The engineers, contractors and scientists, who achieved this result, working long hours and often far from home, haven’t gotten much public recognition for their efforts. They ought to. After working closely with them for months, I can tell you that no one working those joysticks on the ROVs or standing on those platforms and ships in the Gulf was just working for the pay check. They were driven by professional pride and perseverance. They are deeply committed to doing everything in their power to make things right. Thanks to them, we have taken a giant step in that direction.
And from the beginning, this has been a team effort. Indeed, the last four months have very much been about an extraordinary team effort".
BP is investing billions into changing their systems and procedures to ensure that this never happens again. The question yet to be answered is “have the safety lessons been learnt”?