Management walks arounds: Lessons from the Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout

About seven hours before the Gulf the Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout of 2010, a group of four company VIP were transported onto the drilling rig via a helicopter. They had come on a management visibility tour and were actively touring the rig when disaster struck. There were several indications in the hours before the blowout that the well was not under control, in fact that is was "flowing", that is, that the various barriers that were supposed to be in place were not working, and that oil and gas was forcing its way upwards from several kilometers below the sea floor. These indicators were all either missed or misinterpreted by the rig staff. A major purpose of the visit was to emphasize the importance of safety. However, the visitors paid almost no attention to the safety critical activities that were occurring during their visit. Lessons here for all senior managers who undertake management visibility tours in major hazard facilities are highlighted. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 2011 AIChE Spring Meeting & 7th Global Congress on Process Safety (Chicago, IL 3/13-17/2011).