BP Ignored Safety Modeling Software To Save Time

DMandPenfold writes "BP ignored the advice of safety modeling software in an attempt to save time before the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to a presentation slide (PDF) prepared by US investigators. The slide in question briefly appeared on the Oil Spill Commission's website in error, but was quickly retracted. Advanced cement modeling software, provided by BP's cement contractor Halliburton, had highlighted serious stability concerns with the well."

Comments

Re:A private company rushed in for profit

[khallow]

Well, what's wrong with Walmart or IBM? If someone really couldn't do better than a Walmart job, then they probably couldn't run a business either. And IBM is supposed to read the future and know that their counting machines would be used for evil purposes?

Finally, the Bhopal example is not free market. For example, Union Carbide had to set up a corporation that was 49.1% owned by Indian entities (25% ended up owned by the government of India) and run by Indian citizens. There's an interesting timeline (found by googling) that describes not just the plant's problems, but also the market it operated in and regulatory changes over the years. The last item indicates that there were a number of serious regulatory hurdles (such as requiring virtually all of the staff be Indian citizens) that kept the plant from operating more professionally, which in itself might have prevented the accident.

But hey, Feudalism 2.0 is fun if you're part of the nobility, so I expect it to continue on its way.

And feudalism has never been free market.