A report issued last week provided much-needed answers about how a critical piece of equipment failed to avert an oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Now it should be easier for the United States to push forward with a reasonable and responsible offshore drilling program.
The government-sponsored report said the blowout preventer at BP’s Macondo well malfunctioned because surging oil and gas mangled a drill pipe, and emergency shears weren’t able to fully sever the pipe.
It is a conclusion that suggests a relatively straightforward solution: Design a better blowout preventer.
To be sure, there were many other mistakes and problems that contributed to the disaster. We aren’t soft-pedaling the need for reasonably overhauled regulations on offshore drilling operations. However, had the blowout preventer — the last line of defense — functioned as designed, the worst oil spill in U.S. history would have been averted.
A forensic analysis of the massive set of valves, performed by a Norwegian company under contract to government investigators, suggested the task may not be as simple as it might sound. The report raised serious questions as to whether the massive shears are even able to accomplish the task that they are designed for. That question must be answered before policymakers can focus on ensuring a vastly improved blowout preventer becomes standard equipment on underwater wells.
Such a development is crucial to the continued offshore drilling that this country must pursue to support its energy needs.
It is not the only lesson to be learned from the disaster. Many of the other reforms that have come out of the Gulf oil spill disaster have been laudable as well.
It’s clear, for instance, that the old Minerals Management Services at the Department of Interior needed to be overhauled. Over the years, investigations had concluded the agency was too cozy with industry and there was a need for greater regulatory oversight. And we applaud the deliberate change in culture there, which has been led by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
We hope the blowout preventer revelation, which answers one of the nagging questions left in the wake of the disaster, prompts important reforms as well. The outlook for such change looks good.
Administration officials say they fully intend to develop new requirements for blowout preventer design, along with stricter government regulations.
Soon after the April 20 explosion that led to the out-of-control well, federal lawmakers began devising plans to improve blowout preventers, a massive set of valves. Those premature efforts withered, as they should have. Lawmakers were proposing changes without knowing the full scope of the problem.
The time has come to take on the issue, and we hope federal regulators will do so in a way that balances environmental protections and industry concerns.
