Behind BP Disaster: Multinational with Dismal Safety Record

by Mike Hall, Jun 23, 2010

Rep. George Miller didn’t mince words today when describing what’s at the core of the  BP/Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 oil rig workers and is poisoning the Gulf of Mexico and putting tens of thousands of people out of work: “A multinational corporation with a dismal safety record in this country.” In House hearings today examining health and safety enforcement on oil rigs and onshore clean-up efforts, Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee,  said:

The oversight and regulation of Deepwater and similar operations is a jurisdictional mishmash between three federal agencies and international shipping laws.

The hearing focused on the roles of the various agencies and did not delve into the causes and responsibility for the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Managment, Regulation and Enforcement  (BOE)— formerly the Minerals Management Service—have shared safety and safety responsibilities for offshore oil rigs, but because those rigs are considered vessels and fly flags of a foreign nation, they are exempt from some of the tougher U.S. licensing requirements related to vessel safety and health.

Coast Guard Rear Adm. Kevin Cook and BOE acting chief Dough Slitor said the two agencies work together under a 2002 regulation that allows the Ocean Energy Bureau to conduct oil rig  inspections for vessel safety rules—lifeboats, personal flotation devices, deck openings, rails, etc.—and for workplace safety and health standards.

Slitor said that following the April 20 explosion, the bureau issued a safety report that included several recommendations to improve safety and health on offshore rigs, including:

• Certification of all blowout preventers (like the one that failed on the BP Deepwater Horizon) for new floating drilling operations;
• Stronger well control practices, blowout prevention and intervention capabilities;
• More comprehensive inspections for drilling operations; and
• Expanded safety and training programs for rig workers.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the top health and safety watchdog onshore, has no authority beyond the three-mile limit. BP’s Deepwater Horizon sat 72 miles offshore. But OSHA is working to ensure the safety and health of the workers cleaning up the spill, OSHA chief David Michaels told the panel. He said OSHA personnel are at all 17 clean up staging areas in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.

We are in the field and on the boats to make sure BP and its contractors are protecting workers from health and safety hazards. OSHA inspectors ensure that the employer is complying with heat precautions, personal protective equipment and is properly addressing chemical and electrical hazards, decontamination of personnel and equipment and many other hazards.

Also John Howard, MD, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), told the committee that NIOSH is working with OSHA monitoring worker exposure, developing protection guidelines and establishing a health worker surveillance program.

Click here for an archived video of the hearing and here for shorter videos.

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