THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS This PDF is available at http://nap.edu/13273 SHARE Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety DETAILS 196 pages | 6 x 9 | HARDBACK ISBN 978-0-309-38673-9 | DOI 10.17226/13273 AUTHORS BUY THIS BOOK Committee for Analysis of Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents to the Future; National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council FIND RELATED TITLES Visit the National Academies Press at NAP.edu and login or register to get: – Access to free PDF downloads of thousands of scientific reports – 10% off the price of print titles – Email or social media notifications of new titles related to your interests – Special offers and discounts Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the National Academies Press. (Request Permission) Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety Committee on the Analysis of Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future Marine Board Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Insti- tute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance. This project was supported by Contract No. N10PC18384 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the organizations or agencies that provided support for this project. International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-22138-2 International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-22138-2 Additional copies of this report are available from The National Academies Press 500 Fifth Street, NW Box 285 Washington, DC 20055 800-624-6242 202-334-3313 (in the Washington metropolitan area) http://www.nap.edu Copyright 2012 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. 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Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety COMMITTEE ON THE ANALYSIS OF CAUSES OF THE DEEPWATER HORIZON EXPLOSION, FIRE, AND OIL SPILL TO IDENTIFY MEASURES TO PREVENT SIMILAR ACCIDENTS IN THE FUTURE Members DONALD C. WINTER (Chair), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor PAUL M. BOMMER, University of Texas at Austin CHRYSSOSTOMOS CHRYSSOSTOMIDIS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge DAVID E. DANIEL, University of Texas at Dallas THOMAS J. ECCLES, United States Navy, Washington, D.C. EDMUND P. GIAMBASTIANI, JR., United States Navy (retired), Warwick, Maryland DAVID A. HOFMANN, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ROGER L. MCCARTHY, McCarthy Engineering, Palo Alto, California NAJMEDIN MESHKATI, University of Southern California, Los Angeles KEITH K. MILLHEIM, Strategic Worldwide, LLC, The Woodlands, Texas (Resigned November 28, 2011, prior to completion of the committee’s report) M. ELISABETH PATÉ-CORNELL, Stanford University, Stanford, California ROBERT F. SAWYER, University of California at Berkeley JOCELYN E. SCOTT, DuPont Engineering, Facilities and Real Estate, Wilmington, Delaware ARNOLD F. STANCELL, Georgia Institute of Technology, Greenwich, Connecticut MARK D. ZOBACK, Stanford University, Stanford, California Staff RAYMOND A. WASSEL, Project Director v Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety MARINE BOARD MICHAEL S. BRUNO (Chair), Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey THOMAS M. LESCHINE (Vice Chair), University of Washington, Seattle STEVEN R. BARNUM, Hydrographic Consultation Services, Suffolk, Virginia JERRY A. BRIDGES, Virginia Port Authority, Norfolk MARY R. BROOKS, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada JAMES C. CARD, Maritime Consultant, The Woodlands, Texas STEPHEN M. CARMEL, Maersk Line Limited, Norfolk, Virginia EDWARD N. COMSTOCK, Raytheon Company, Sudbury, Massachusetts STEPHAN TONI GRILLI, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett DOUGLAS J. GRUBBS, Crescent River Port Pilots Association, Metairie, Louisiana FREDERICK J. HARRIS, General Dynamics, San Diego, California JUDITH HILL HARRIS, City of Portland, Maine JOHN R. HEADLAND, Moffatt & Nichol Engineers, New York, New York JOHN M. HOLMES, Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro, California DONALD LIU, Marine Consultant, Willis, Texas RICHARD S. MERCIER, Texas A&M University, College Station EDMOND J. MORAN, JR., Moran Towing Corporation, New Canaan, Connecticut ALI MOSLEH, University of Maryland, College Park GEORGE BERRYMAN NEWTON, QinetiQ North America, Marstons Mills, Massachusetts PETER K. VELEZ, Shell International Exploration and Production, Inc., Houston, Texas JOHN WILLIAM WAGGONER, HMS Global Maritime, New Albany, Indiana TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD 2011 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OFFICERS NEIL J. PEDERSEN (Chair), Administrator, Maryland State Highway Administration (retired), Baltimore SANDRA ROSENBLOOM (Vice Chair), Professor of Planning, University of Arizona, Tucson C. MICHAEL WALTON (Division Chair for NRC Oversight), Ernest H. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering, University of Texas, Austin ROBERT E. SKINNER, JR. (Executive Director), Transportation Research Board vi Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety BOARD ON ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AND TOXICOLOGY Members ROGENE F. HENDERSON (Chair), Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico PRAVEEN AMAR, Clean Air Task Force, Boston, Massachusetts TINA BAHADORI, American Chemistry Council, Washington, D.C. MICHAEL J. BRADLEY, M.J. Bradley & Associates, Concord, Massachusetts JONATHAN Z. CANNON, University of Virginia, Charlottesville GAIL CHARNLEY, HealthRisk Strategies, Washington, D.C. FRANK W. DAVIS, University of California, Santa