EES3016 Assignment 2 Ethics, Code and Conduct 2017-2018 PDF

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Summary

EES3016: Engineer and Society Assignment 2 Trimester 1 Multimedia University Topic : A case study of Engineering Tragedy Deepwater Horizon Oil Submission Date : 18 September 2017 1 Table of Contents Overview :..............................................................................................

Description

EES3016: Engineer and Society Assignment 2 Trimester 1 2017/18 Multimedia University

Topic

: A case study of “Man-Made Engineering Tragedy – Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill”

Submission Date

: 18 September 2017

Table of Contents 1

Overview :........................................................................................................................................3 - 4

Detailed discussion on effect of tragedy :........................................................................................4 - 5

Detailed discussion on actions taken after tragedy :.......................................................................5 - 6

Code of Engineering Ethics (CoE) Application :.............................................................................6 - 7

References :.......................................................................................................................................... 7

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1.0 OVERVIEW

On 20 April 2010, an offshore oil rig, Deepwater Horizon belonged to British Petroleum (BP) had exploded due to over drilling limit. In the process, the explosion had killed 11 workers and injured 115 crew members which took place in the Gulf of Mexico, 52 miles (84km) south-east of Venice, Louisiana. The issue of catastrophic oil spill and environment disaster rose after the oil rig sunk to the bottom of the Gulf considered its ability to release eight thousand barrels of oil per day. According to official, it revealed an estimated one thousand barrels of oil leaked per day from the well five thousand feet below the surface of the Gulf. In response to that, undersea robots were sent by BP in effort of activating the blowout preventer of the well turned into unsuccesful action. At that moment, US President Barack Obama pledged every assets of the country to aid the matter. To prevent the oil slick from reaching the Louisiana coastal wetlands, effort of setting fire to patches of spilled oil was carried out. On 30 April, the coastal wetlands were begun to fill with thick mud from leaking oil that were washed ashore. The official reevaluate the possible rate of leaking oil with estimated five thousand barrels of oil per day. Meanwhile, BP decided to contain the oil spills with giant metal box but their effort failed. As the disaster was not able to cease, the companies including BP that involved in Deepwater Horizon operation were all arguing and blamed each other. Following with that, estimated seventy thousand barrels of oil were leaking per day according to researchers. Another effort was carried out by BP to thread a tube into the broken well. The officials were reported the coast of Florida and US east coast could be affected with the leak. An attempt to plug the leaking well by BP was carried out but failed again. US officials stated the incident was the worst environmental disaster in US history. To reduce the impact, BP used cap and placed atop of the well to pipe as much oil and gas leaking to standby tankers on the surface. As to compensate for victims of the oil spills, BP would place $20bn as fund. Meanwhile, a new CEO of BP was announced to replace the current one due to his insensitive remarks on the spill. The company reviewed that it cost them $3.12bn from every effort as well compensation to affected victims. For the leaking to stop temporarily, the company placed another new tight cap atop of the well. The leaking was stopped and planned to seal the well permanently with pumping mud onto the top of cap placed on the well. The operation delayed for about two weeks due to huge storm. With efforts, BP able to close the well permanently and cementing process was commenced to ensure the leaking did not happened again. The company paid around $8bn included the compensation and examined the leak of oil into the Gulf was 206 million gallons. They accepted responsibilty for the disaster as well blamed other involved companies. US scientists speculated the clean up operation took about 100 days which was earlier than expected. However, the spill of leaking oil had affected the coastlines of Louisiana and US east coast as well threaten hundreds of animal species nearby. A massive response ensued to protect beaches, wetlands and bays from the spreading oil utilizing skimmer ships, floating booms and controlled burns. Due to the months-long spill, along with adverse effects from the response and clean up activities, extensive damage to marine and wildlife habitats and fishing and tourism industries was reported. In 2013 it was reported that dolphins and 3

other marine life continued to die in record numbers with infant dolphins dying at six times the normal rate.

2.0 DETAILED DISCUSSION ON EFFECT OF TRAGEDY Humanitarian Perspective As the tragedy happened, the spill of leaking oil had become part of ocean tide and spread to other locations. One of the situation that can observe when the spill became washing ashore in some nearby affected shorelines such as Louisiana wetlands and Florida. The most affected victims in this case were the community people of these affected shores. Since the fish was one of their source of proteins and income for fishermen, the spill of leaking oil had kill most of the aquatic living nearby. With oil slick on the surface of ocean, the fishermen were not able to catch any fresh and living fishes around the area. Even with the caught of low quantity of fish at further area, it might still not safe to consume as there might be possible of toxic materials from the spill. According to BCC news, the scientific journal discovered 0.1% presence of toxic chemical spilled from the well. As the result, it might cause inevitable food shortage in the communities as well the jobs of the fishermen which depended solely on fishing to support their life. Without supply of fish, it also might affect the local economy besides affect the local communities. With the area covering by oil slick, it was impacted on the recreational activities and tourism at the beach. Many residents of Gulf would not be able to have recreational activities due to the presence of oil slick. This was not excluded for local tourism because the disaster had caused the condition of coast became unsafe making the tourism businesses to shut down their operation. The health of locals and cleanup workers also might affected with the leaking oil and chemicals around the bayou. As for the families of 11 deceased workers and 115 injured workers, their emotions and psychologies would be much affected from the incident. The deceased ones became sad memories for their families while the injured ones could face mentality problems due to the trauma they had. Engineering Perspective Without taking much consideration of the limitation of the drill technology and technical failure on detecting the error, the drilling process became a big disaster. Originally, the drill had its limit but the person in-charge neglected the danger and continued to pursue the process kept going. Eventually the problem became more serious till the point where the well was broken causing the spilling of oil. The situation became uncontrollable when there was an explosion in the oil rig. It turned worst when the systems failed due to explosion and leaking of oil endangered the lives of the workers. Unable to further shut down the damaged well, the oil pumped out and spilled into the ocean making the surrounding area filled with it. Not only the Deepwater Horizon was on fire, the area filled with oil had the high risk of getting engulfed by fire. Thick and black smoke from the fire in the oil rig caused air pollution. It might affect the flying birds and the rescuers who attempting to put out the fire for continuous hours. The spilling of oil become environment disaster as oil slick would disrupt the breathing process of marine lives as well death to both flying birds and aquatic living. The harmful effect also not excluded to human due to toxic and chemical substances that might leak out from the seabed. With 4

the continuous leakage and unable to seal the well at the moment had polluted the oceans and the oil slick also started affect the nearby coastlines.

3.0 DETAILED DISCUSSION ON ACTIONS TAKEN AFTER TRAGEDY Humanitarian Perspective After the tragedy happened, BP had compensated the residents of Gulf and affected communities in nearby coastlines in terms of money and medical services. For people who had lost their job or unable to run business such as fishermen and tourism businesses, the company compensated them with money. This is to ensure those affected one to lesser their burden as the incident had disrupted their source of income as well source of food. Few organizations also aid to reduce the burden of the victims as they had lost their livelihood. The slick oil and chemical substances affected the health of communities which might due to contact of polluted water and other possibly. To deal with the losses by the victims, BP provided compensation for medical costs to the locals. Any local residents, cleanup workers and the affected Deepwater Horizon workers who had health problems due to effect of the disaster were able to receive the medical service. The company also compensated for any properties such as boats and ships damaged by the oil spill. Legal Perspective The US President Barack Obama said BP would be responsible for the leak incident and the cleanup process. The incident had given rise to many lawsuits and continued to increase. Several investigations had been launched in this case including the civil and criminal probes conducted by the Department of Justice. The criminal investigation would determine the issue of whether improper relations between corporate officials and federal regulators in the incident. Following by that, the department filed a civil lawsuit against BP and several involved companies in Deepwater Horizons operation. It involved consolidated proceedings as well claims under the Oil Pollution Act and Clean Water Act. In response to that, BP stated that the company would continue to cooperate with government investigations and answered all the questions in time to time. The company agreed to plead guilty to pay a $4.5bn fine to the Department of Justice and 14 criminal charges. Besides that, they also paid $3.2bn to the related science and wildlife organization. A statement was filled with the court that BP would pay for all the claims. On 4 September 2014, the Court found out that BP guilty of negligence and misconduct in the disaster. The involved companies also found guilty of negligence. Engineering Perspective With the leaking of oil crisis still continued, the company had come out with several efforts in attempting to seal the leakage at the wellhead. By sealing the leakage, it would prevent the oil flowed out into the ocean. Few attempt like placing metal box atop of the well and used tube to plug the well were unsuccessful. Several reports and findings at estimating on how much barrels of oil per day were carried out. These efforts were doing so in order to measure the impact of oil spills to environment and its risks. Another attempt was using a tighter cap and placed atop of the wellhead. It was considered a success effort as the cap able to prevent the leakage. In order to seal the well completely, the company planned to cement the area. 5

The development of offshore drilling became more concern after the incident. Many policies and practices were enforced to ensure safety standards achieved. One of the practices was the spill response drills as well utilizing the best technology and training for rig operators continuously.

4.0 CODE OF ENGINEERING (CoE) APPLICATION 1.) Registered Professional Engineer with Practicing Certificate to certify work only if he has control over supervision. The principle is stated according to BEM Code of Professional Conduct [6]. A registered Professional Engineer who takes over a piece of work shall assume all liability and responsibility for the works done prior to his taking over. Working in hostile environments like in oil rig and boiler are extremely life risking as improper action and supervision could lead to loss of lives. Thus, a certified or professional engineer with competency must be understand and capable to supervise well all the subordinate workers who work at such condition. The example can be seen in Deepwater Horizon disaster where the gas sensor goes off and no one activates the emergency system. Otherwise, they could prevent the oil and gas from igniting. As a registered engineer, it is crucial to check the systems function and make sure the workers are always ready just in case any emergency happens. 2.) Hold Safety Paramount According to ASCE Code of Ethics [4], the first canon is the hold safety paramount. Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable development in the performance of their professional duties. In the Deepwater Horizon aftermath, it is learnt that BP is not ethical to choose the cheaper and consume less time method which disregard the ethics of hold safety paramount. This scenario shows that the company is preferred low cost technology and equipments to have better profits but they do not know that it comes with a price to pay. As the result, 11 workers died and 115 workers injured. If only BP think ahead for the welfare of workers and choose the safer option, none of the tragedy would happen. Not only that, they could save more with using proper technology and equipments than paying fines and compensations for the damaged cause to safety, health and welfare of the public. 3.) Treat All Persons Fairly As stated in ASCE Code of Ethics [4], treat all persons fairly is one of the important canons that all engineers should practice. Engineers shall, in all matters related to their profession, treat all persons fairly and encourage equitable participation without regard to gender or gender identity, race, national origin, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, political affiliation, or family, marital, or economic status. Engineers also should treat every worker with dignity, respect and fairness. Besides that, they need to ensure the workers work in safe place and treat them without discriminate or unfair. According to Louisiana Department of Health, the number of case related to health after the tragedy is 143 included the spill oil exposure by the cleanup workers. There are 17 workers suffered from cleanup of spill oil process. 4.) To avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or malicious action 6

According to IEEE Code of Ethics [7], avoiding injured others, their property, reputation or employment is one of the ethics must be applied to engineers. Engineers shall not involved or engaged with the malicious or false action which may damage and injure to others, property, reputation or employment. The disaster of Deepwater Horizon brings not only injuries to workers and the coastlines communities but also their property and the loss of employment of many. With one action that could cause a huge impact, engineers must learn from this tragedy that a false or malicious action for self-interest will have the risk of affecting others. If BP would not perform any action for own self-interest in drilling deeper than what the limit of their drill, there will be no accidents and traumas happen to everyone including the loss of the workers’ family. 5.) Discharge professional responsibilities with diligence and honesty According to ISSA National Code of Ethics [3], one of the principles that shall practice is discharge professional responsibilities with diligence and honesty. Engineers need to exercise their moral judgements in all activities and discharge their professional responsibilities with honesty to avoid any conflicts and confrontation. A decision is made by BP in order to save time and money during the cementing process and informed the authorities that they have completed the process. However, the Court ruled and found out that BP completed the cementing process with dishonest method by skipping protocols and substituting materials used to seal the well. If only the company be honest and conduct their responsibilities well, they would not be charge by the law. 6.) Safeguarding and Protect the environment This practice is based on the MACCHI Code of Ethics [8]. As an engineer, it is his or her duty to perform legal action for accident prevention and safety of the workplace and environment with included the ecosystem. Any accident occurs whether in small or big scale would impact the environment which cause the loss of habitats, disruption of food chain and endangered the lives of animals. Likewise in Deepwater Horizon tragedy is the largest environment disaster in US history with anthropogenic release of oil into marine waters. The spill of oil has brought huge effect on the marine animals of the surrounding area, destroying their homes and killing countless animals. REFERENCE [1] http://bpclaimoilspill.com/affected-areas/ [2] https://business-humanrights.org/en/us-deepwater-horizon-explosion-oil-spill-lawsuits [3] https://issa-cos.org/code-of-ethics/ [4] http://www.asce.org/code-of-ethics/ [5] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-10656239 [6] http://www.bem.org.my/web/guest/code-of-professional-conduct [7] http://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/p7-8.html [8] http://www.macchiboiler.it/en/corporate/code-of-ethics/code-of-ethics-safeguarding-safety-andprotecting-the-environment/

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