A System Approach to Safety

This article presents results of a report that was undertaken to study system approach to offshore drilling safety. The study was conducted by the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council, and led by former Navy Secretary Donald Winter, now a professor of engineering at the University of Michigan. The report’s systems approach for hardware would include better risk assessment, improved design guidelines, more realistic testing and modeling, and an enhanced systems-level understanding of offshore drilling equipment. The committee drew its recommendations from an analysis of the Macondo Well blowout, which destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on April 20, 2010. The panel called for more instrumentation and computer-based expert decision aids for emergency warnings, as well as autonomous systems to shut down wells in emergencies. The committee recommended that operating companies be held responsible and accountable for well safety and integrity. The report recommended expanded safety R&D to improve design, testing, modeling, risk assessment, safety culture, and systems integration. It also supported educating and training personnel to implement system safety.