In a scathing report, a presidential commission appointed to look into last year’s oil spill disaster, found not only that BP's chronic failure of management led to the blowout at its Macondo well, but that the problems were systemic, and, here's the real scary part - a similar spill could happen again.
The National Oil Spill Commissionnoted that "most of the mistakes and oversights” at the well which led to the explosion "can be traced back to a single overarching failure — a failure of management." (Click here to read the full report.)
As we all know, 11 people died, several more were injured and more than 200 million gallons of crude oil gushed uncontrollable into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly three months following the April 20th explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
In their new book,"IN TOO DEEP: BP and the Drilling Race That Took it Down" investigative reporter Alison Fitzgerald and Stanley Reed, a journalist who has covered BP for over a decade, take us behind the scenes examining the people and the culture to help explain how the "tragedy of the Deepwater Horizon was not simply a horrible accident. It was a disaster that many say was long in the making, was foreseeable, and almost inevitable."
More from "IN TOO DEEP" including:
- "BP is the most creative of the big oil companies at finding oil and gas. It is the leading oil and gas producer in the U.S. and in the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico. The company's financial troubles after the oil spill may lead it to concentrate even more on deepwater drilling.
- Former CEO John Browne — whose father worked for BP's predecessor and who himself worked for BP his entire career — turned the company into a powerhouse by chasing oil in difficult places. However, he failed to appreciate the huge dangers of drilling and refining and therefore never made safety a top priority at BP.
- Browne rose to the top of his industry, and the business world, by building BP into one the largest oil companies on earth. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth. However, he resigned in disgrace after a personal scandaland his reputation is becoming further tainted by the massive gulf oil spill.
- BP's workers were so pressed to make their financial targets that they cut corners without regard to risk and they were aware of the tradeoffs they were making, according to internal corporate studies and documents.
- BP has been investigated, cited, fined and convicted by federal safety, environmental and criminal authorities more than any of its peers in the US over the last decade."
Click here to read an excerpt from "IN TOO DEEP"that begins with survivor accounts from the terrifying moments of the explosion in a chapter called, "Night of Horror."
Email me at bullishonbooks@cnbc.com — And follow me on Twitter @BullishonBooks
