The new president of BP is trying to give the impression that as far as oil & gas drilling and production operations in the Gulf of Mexico are safe and that excessive fear over the recent oil spill disaster are simply attempts by news media to utilize " fear mongering "
I have had the opportunity to work in the offshore oil & gas industry for over 30 years. I can contradict Mr. Dudley with a lifetime of experience that testifies to the opposite of his promise.
There are many oil & gas companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico, I have had the opportunity to work on drilling rigs and production platforms for the majority of them.
While each individual company may have what they interpet as a safe operating record , the Gulf of Mexico Oil & Gas industry experiences incidents which threaten the safety of the personnel , environment and the equipment on a daily basis.
Not one single day goes by where several undesirable events occur which require the " shut down " of a drilling rig or a production platform , where personnel can get time to correct a dangerous situation and bring the facility or rig back into full operations.
There are some 3,500 oil & gas production platforms and 350 drilling rigs currently in the Gulf of Mexico
Each of these have many , many safety devices which are set to detect undesirable events , such as high gas pressure , low gas pressure , high liquid level, low liquid level, high flow rate , low flow rate , flow back , high temperature , fire , explosive gas , poison gas , etc.
Now on a daily basis each production platform and drilling rig experiences at least one of these alams and the platform or rig automatically shuts itself down to allow the personnel to evaluate the situation and take corrective action, before starting the platform or rig back up to normal operations.
There are some ' OUTLAW " personnel who operate with this safety system in 'BYPASS' which disables the alarm and shut down function , which ultimately ends up in damage to the personnel or the environment or the equipment.
For the most part only a few of the incidents of personnel injury , environmental damage or equipment damage are reported the majority are not. Leaving the field personnel to deal with under cover of silence and most times with knowledge by the office personnel management.
With only 5 -10 % of the environmental damage and equipment damage ever being reported to regulatory agencies how can any one company make a bold statement that oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico are safe ?
BP's Mr. Dudley as well as the other presidents of the other oil companies all know this is the truth , but they misrepresent the truth to the United States Government as well as the American Public quoting facts from industry report cards which the industry manipulates on a daily basis with false reporting practices or not reporting at all.
When anyone speaks of how safe it is to work offshore in the Gulf of Mexico they are telling you the truth about the tip of the ice berg which you can see above the water.
What will get you killed is what lays below hidden from sight that they are not telling you about .
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