BP Oil Spill – Blue Screen of Death

As the Energy sector specialist here at Vector, I have read with interest the recent articles which have reported that Deepwater Horizon’s drilling system was crippled by the infamous ‘Blue Screen of Death’ before the Gulf Oil spill.

At a federal hearing last Friday, the chief electrician aboard the Horizon testified that computer monitoring drilling operations had been freezing with a ‘blue screen of death’ prior to the explosion which sank the oil rig in April.

In his testimony to a six person federal panel, Michael Williams, chief electronics technician, said that the rig’s safety alarms had been habitually switched to a bypass mode to avoid waking up the crew in the middle of the night. According to numerous reports, including articles published in the New York Times and New Orleans Daily, he also said that a computer control system in the drill shack would record high gas levels or a fire, but it would not trigger warning sirens.

Transocean, owners of Deepwater Horizon are facing a multi-million dollar federal lawsuit, filed by Williams, who also said he was called to check the computer system which monitors and controls drilling 5 weeks prior to the incident on 20th April. Michael Williams, said that the machine had been locking for months and producing what he and other crew members called the ‘blue screen of death’, synonymous with the term used to describe the display by Microsoft Windows after a serious crash which incapacitates a computer.
Without this system, the driller would not have access to crucial data relating to action within the well.

Other testimonies have sighted an influx of problems on the rig including power cuts, leaking emergency equipment and cutting corners which may have contributed to the explosion which killed 11 people and has resulted in the largest oil spill in US history.

Government investigators have been questioning workers and executives of Transocean, the rig’s owner, and BP which leased it to drill the wells in the Gulf of Mexico.

What lessons international oil & gas companies will strive to learn from this event is perhaps too early to say whilst the investigations continue. However, these reports undoubtedly emphasize the importance of ensuring that sufficient investment is given to IT systems on oil rigs and, critically, on the software that is deployed to monitor drilling operations – to reduce the chances of this sort of disaster happening again in the future.

A catastrophe of this magnitude also highlights the importance of having exceptional IT Professionals who have the relevant experience and industry knowledge. I have successfully placed both technical and business-focused IT contractors with major Oil & Gas companies and have an established database of industry-specific contractors who are able to work in disparate geographical locations. If you would like to discuss any potential requirements, I would be pleased to hear from you.

Mark Cassé, Senior Consultant, Vector Resourcing
01892 771447

mrc@vector-uk.com