How safe are oil and gas facilities? The lowly gauge can spell the difference between safety and disaster if not regularly monitored

摘要

What does an operator do if he or she has to make a key decision based on pressure readings provided by two gauges, but they are registering conflicting information? One must be malfunctioning, but diat operator has to make a decision quickly regarding which gauge to trust. It sounds like the final climactic scene of a blockbuster action film, but this is one of die scenarios that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The crew had to roll the dice and ended up making die wrong decision, believing diat die gauge diat was actually functioning properly was malfunctioning. The end result was 11 lost lives and billions of dollars in environmental cleanup costs, destroyed equipment, regulatory fines, and litigation expenses.