Gap analysis of Macondo blowout incident with their prescribed standards & codes

Abstract

Macondo blowout also known as the Deep Water Horizon incident has been one of the biggest oil field disaster in history. It has also become an effective case study for the Health Safety and Environmental aspects of the Petroleum Industry.

This thesis deals by exhaustively comparing the GAP between the Macondo blowout with the regulations, recommended practices, guidelines, Industry standards and codes that existed prior to the blowout (Pre-Macondo) and what was actually implemented in case of deep water horizon as well as analyzing it with the current Norwegian / International Standards and codes (Post-Macondo).

To understand the GAP Analysis, it is necessary to understand the background of the Macondo incident so that the reader could understand the discrepancies between Pre-Macondo and Post-Macondo more fully, therefore this thesis starts by exhaustively performing a review of literature on the series of events that led to the Macondo blowout, safety systems that were employed at Deepwater Horizon followed by the GAP analysis which forms the basis for the discussion and conclusion at the end.