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Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety (2012)

Chapter: Study Committee Biographical Information

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Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2012. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13273.
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Study Committee Biographical Information

Committee on the Analysis of Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future

Donald C. Winter, Chair, is Professor of Engineering Practice in the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of Michigan. He served as the 74th Secretary of the Navy from January 2006 to March 2009. As Secretary of the Navy, he led America’s Navy and Marine Corps team and was responsible for an annual budget in excess of $125 billion and almost 900,000 people. Previously, Dr. Winter served as a corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems sector. In that position he oversaw operation of the business and its 18,000 employees, providing information technology systems and services; systems engineering and analysis; systems development and integration; scientific, engineering, and technical services; and enterprise management services. Dr. Winter also served on the company’s corporate policy council. Previously, he served as president and CEO of TRW Systems; vice president and deputy general manager for group development of TRW’s Space and Electronics business; and vice president and general manager of the Defense Systems Division of TRW. From 1980 to 1982, he was with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as program manager for space acquisition, tracking, and pointing programs. Dr. Winter received a doctorate in physics from the University of Michigan. He is also a graduate of the University of Southern California Management Policy Institute; the University of California, Los Angeles, Executive Program; and the Harvard University Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security. In 2002, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Paul M. Bommer is a senior lecturer in petroleum engineering in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at

Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2012. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13273.
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Austin. He is a major contributor to publications of the University of Texas Petroleum Extension Service, including books on oil well drilling and fundamentals of petroleum. Recently, Dr. Bommer was a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration–U.S. Geological Survey Flow Rate Technical Group concerning oil rate estimates escaping from the BP Mississippi Canyon 252-001 (Macondo) well. In 1979, he cofounded Bommer Engineering Company, which is an oil and gas consulting company specializing in drilling and production operations and oil and gas appraisals. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas. He received a PhD in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Chryssostomos Chryssostomidis is the Doherty Professor of Ocean Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1970, he was appointed to the faculty of MIT. In 1982 he was made a full professor and was appointed director of the MIT Sea Grant College Program. In 1989 he established the MIT Sea Grant Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Laboratory to develop technology and systems for advanced autonomous surface and underwater vehicles. His more than 100 publications display his wide range of interests. Among them are design methodology for ships; vortex-induced response of flexible cylinders; underwater vehicle design; and design issues in advanced shipbuilding, including the all-electric ship and T-craft. Professor Chryssostomidis is a licensed engineer in the state of Massachusetts and has served on several National Research Council (NRC) committees focusing on shipbuilding and marine issues. He received a PhD in ship systems analysis from MIT.

David E. Daniel is President of the University of Texas at Dallas. Previously, he was Dean of Engineering at the University of Illinois. Earlier, Dr. Daniel was L. B. Meaders Professor of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught for 15 years. He has conducted research in the area of geoenvironmental engineering, including research on drilling fluids, containment and management of those fluids, and fluid pressure control in the subsurface. Dr. Daniel served as chair of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ External Review Panel, which evaluated the failure of the New Orleans levees. He also served as a member of NRC’s Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board, the Board on Energy and Environmental Systems, and the Geotechnical Board. Dr. Daniel received a PhD in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2000.

Thomas J. Eccles is a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy. He currently serves as Chief Engineer and Deputy Commander for Naval Systems Engineering, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). Previously, he served at sea aboard the USS Richard B. Russell (SSN-687) and the USS Gurnard (SSN-662). He served as an engineering duty officer at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, as project officer for the USS Parche (SSN-683), and as assistant program manager for deep ocean engineering in the Navy’s Deep Submergence Systems Program. He

Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2012. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13273.
×

served twice in the Virginia Class Submarine Program, directing design and construction. He was executive assistant to the Commander, NAVSEA. Rear Admiral Eccles was Seawolf program manager through the delivery of the USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), where his team was awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation, then program manager for Advanced Undersea Systems, responsible for research and development submarines, submarine escape and rescue systems, and atmospheric diving systems. He was also program manager for the design and construction of the unmanned autonomous submarine Cutthroat (LSV-2). His previous flag officer assignments included deputy commander for Undersea Warfare and Undersea Technology in NAVSEA and commander of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. He received an MS from MIT in mechanical engineering, a naval engineer degree, and a master’s degree in management from MIT’s Sloan School.

Edmund P. Giambastiani, Jr., is a retired U.S. Navy Admiral. He served as the seventh Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the nation’s second-highest-ranking military officer) from 2005 until he retired in 2007. While Vice Chairman, he also served as the cochair of the Defense Acquisition Board; chair of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council; and member of the National Security Council Deputies Committee, the Nuclear Weapons Council, and the Missile Defense Executive Board. He previously served as Commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command; as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s first Supreme Allied Commander Transformation; and as senior military assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Defense. Admiral Giambastiani is a career nuclear submarine officer and gained extensive operational experience, including command at the submarine, squadron, and fleet levels and service as a chief engineer. His operational assignments included several in which he was responsible for demanding at-sea operations and for the development of new technologies and experimental processes. He commanded Submarine NR-1, the Navy’s only nuclear-powered deep-diving ocean engineering and research submarine, the USS Richard B. Russell (SSN-687), and the Submarine Force U.S. Atlantic Fleet. He currently serves on the boards of the Boeing Company, Monster Worldwide, and the Mitre Corporation and consults independently. Since retirement, he has served on a number of U.S. government advisory boards, investigations, and task forces for the Secretaries of Defense and State and for the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He currently serves as chairman of the Secretary of the Navy’s Advisory Panel. Admiral Giambastiani graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with leadership distinction.

David A. Hofmann is Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. Dr. Hofmann conducts research on leadership, organizational and work group safety climates, and organizational factors that affect the safety behavior and performance of individual employees. His research has contributed significantly to the scientific foundation of tools used to assess the safety and organizational climates of organizations—

Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2012. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13273.
×

such as at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration after the Columbia accident—and to help plan interventions to improve safety climate. His research has appeared in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Personnel Psychology. He has published or has forthcoming numerous book chapters on leadership, safety issues, and multilevel research methods. In 2003, he edited a scholarly book on safety in organizations (Health and Safety in Organizations: A Multilevel Perspective), and he has a second edited book forthcoming on Errors in Organizations. He has received the American Psychological Association’s Decade of Behavior Award and the Society of Human Resource Management’s Yoder-Heneman Award, and he has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar. Before arriving at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he was a faculty member at Purdue University, Texas A&M University, and Michigan State University. Dr. Hofmann consults, conducts applied research, and leads executive workshops for a variety of governmental organizations and private corporations. He received a PhD in industrial and organizational psychology from Pennsylvania State University.

Roger L. McCarthy is a private engineering consultant and a director of Shui on Land, Ltd., which is involved in large-scale urban redevelopment in the People’s Republic of China. Dr. McCarthy has substantial experience in the analysis of failures of an engineering or scientific nature. He has investigated the grounding of the Exxon Valdez, the explosion and loss of the Piper Alpha oil platform in the North Sea, the fire and explosion on the semisubmersible Glomar Arctic II, and the rudder failure on the very large crude carrier Amoco Cadiz. Previously, Dr. McCarthy was chairman emeritus of Exponent, Inc., and chairman of Exponent Science and Technology Consulting Company, Ltd. (Hangzhou, China). In 1992, he was appointed by the first President Bush to the President’s Commission on the National Medal of Science. Dr. McCarthy received a PhD in mechanical engineering from MIT. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004.

Najmedin Meshkati is Professor of Engineering at the University of Southern California. As a Jefferson Science Fellow, he served as a senior science and engineering adviser to the Office of the Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State (2009–2010). For the past 25 years, he has been teaching and conducting research on risk reduction and reliability enhancement of complex technological systems, including those in the nuclear power, aviation, and petrochemical and transportation industries. He has written many articles on human factors, safety culture, and accident causation. Dr. Meshkati has inspected many petrochemical and nuclear power plants around the world, including Chernobyl in 1997. He worked with the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board as an expert adviser in human factors and safety culture on the investigation of the BP Refinery explosion in Texas City. He was elected Fellow of the

Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2012. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13273.
×

Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in 1997. Dr. Meshkati served as a member of the NRC Committee on Human Performance, Organizational Systems, and Maritime Safety. He also served as a member of the Marine Board’s Subcommittee on Coordinated R&D Strategies for Human Performance to Improve Marine Operations and Safety. Dr. Meshkati received a PhD in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Southern California.

Keith K. Millheim is director and owner of Strategic Worldwide, LLC, which provides advisory services to oil companies for oil and gas exploration and production. He is also managing director of Nautilus International, LLC, which conducts research and development projects pertaining to deepwater well intervention and early deepwater reservoir appraisal. In 2007, he retired from Anadarko Petroleum Corporation as a distinguished adviser. He was also director of the Mewbourne School of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Oklahoma in Norman; director of the Institute of Drilling, Production, and Economics at the Mining University of Leoben in Austria; a research consultant and drilling manager for Amoco Production Company; and a petroleum engineer for Conoco. Dr. Millheim’s research interests focus on the implementation of new technology in petroleum drilling. He has experience in deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, the North Sea, and West Africa. He currently serves as a member of the NRC Committee on the Review of the Scientific Accomplishments and Assessment of the Potential for Future Transformative Discoveries with U.S.-Supported Scientific Ocean Drilling. Dr. Millheim received a PhD in mining engineering from the University of Leoben. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1990.

M. Elisabeth Paté-Cornell is Burt and Deedee McMurtry Professor and Past Chair of the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. Her specialty is engineering risk analysis with application to complex systems (space, medical, etc.). Her research has focused on explicit consideration of human and organizational factors in the analysis of failure risks and, recently, on the use of game theory in risk analysis. Applications in the past few years have included counterterrorism and nuclear counterproliferation problems. She is a member of several boards, including those of Aerospace, Draper, and InQtel. She was a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board until December 2008. She received a PhD in engineering–economic systems from Stanford University. Dr. Paté-Cornell was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1995.

Robert F. Sawyer is the Class of 1935 Professor of Energy, Emeritus, with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests are in combustion, pollutant formation and control, regulatory policy, rocket propulsion, and fire safety. He served as chairman of the California Air Resources Board, chairman of the energy and resources group of the University of California at Berkeley, chief of the liquid systems analysis

Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2012. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13273.
×

section at the U.S. Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, and president of the Combustion Institute. Dr. Sawyer has served on numerous NRC committees and is a member of NRC’s Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. He holds a PhD in aerospace science from Princeton University. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2008.

Jocelyn E. Scott is chief engineer and vice president of DuPont Engineering, Facilities and Real Estate. She joined DuPont in 1984 in the DuPont Photosystems and Electronic Products division in Rochester, New York. Ms. Scott served in numerous engineering and operations activities and carried out R&D assignments in various DuPont businesses. She was manager for various engineering positions and was named executive assistant to the chairman and CEO. In 2002, she was named director of DuPont Engineering and Research Technology, and in 2004 she became director of Capital Asset Productivity. In 2006 she was named director of DuPont Leveraged Operations; later that year, she became managing director, Facilities and Capital Asset Productivity. She was named vice president of DuPont Engineering in January 2008 and appointed to her current position in September 2008. Ms. Scott chaired the 2008 national conference of the Construction Users Roundtable. In addition to participating on various industry advisory boards, she has served on the Committee of Visitors for the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems of the National Science Foundation. She received a master’s degree in chemical engineering practice from MIT.

Arnold F. Stancell is Turner Professor of Chemical Engineering, Emeritus, at Georgia Institute of Technology. Earlier in his career he was offered tenure at MIT but decided on a career in industry. He had a 31-year career with Mobil Oil, where he was Vice President, U.S. Exploration and Production, offshore and onshore, and subsequently Vice President, International Exploration and Production for Europe, including the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands and Germany, and the Middle East including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi. He led the development of the now $70 billion natural gas production and liquefied natural gas joint venture between Mobil and Qatar. Previously, he held senior executive positions in Chemicals and Marketing and Refining. He started in Mobil in 1962 in research and development and has nine U.S. patents in petrochemical processes. Dr. Stancell received an ScD in chemical engineering from MIT; his thesis was on reservoir rock wettability and oil recovery. He is a licensed professional engineer in New York and Connecticut. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1997.

Mark D. Zoback is the Benjamin M. Page Professor of Geophysics at Stanford University. He is also codirector of the Stanford Rock Physics and Borehole Geophysics industrial consortium. Dr. Zoback conducts research on in situ stress, fault mechanics, and reservoir geomechanics. He is the author of a textbook, Reservoir Geomechanics, and was co–principal investigator of SAFOD,

Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2012. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13273.
×

the scientific drilling project that drilled and sampled the San Andreas Fault at a depth of 3 km. He serves as a senior adviser to Baker Hughes, Inc. Before joining Stanford in 1984, Dr. Zoback worked at the U.S. Geological Survey, where he served as chief of the Tectonophysics Branch. He is the 2008 recipient of the Walter H. Bucher Medal from the American Geophysical Union. He received a PhD in geophysics from Stanford University. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2011.

Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2012. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13273.
×
Page 170
Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2012. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13273.
×
Page 171
Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2012. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13273.
×
Page 172
Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2012. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13273.
×
Page 173
Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2012. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13273.
×
Page 174
Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2012. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13273.
×
Page 175
Suggested Citation:"Study Committee Biographical Information." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2012. Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13273.
×
Page 176
Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety Get This Book
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The blowout of the Macondo well on April 20, 2010, led to enormous consequences for the individuals involved in the drilling operations, and for their families. Eleven workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig lost their lives and 16 others were seriously injured. There were also enormous consequences for the companies involved in the drilling operations, to the Gulf of Mexico environment, and to the economy of the region and beyond. The flow continued for nearly 3 months before the well could be completely killed, during which time, nearly 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the gulf.

Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout examines the causes of the blowout and provides a series of recommendations, for both the oil and gas industry and government regulators, intended to reduce the likelihood and impact of any future losses of well control during offshore drilling. According to this report, companies involved in offshore drilling should take a "system safety" approach to anticipating and managing possible dangers at every level of operation -- from ensuring the integrity of wells to designing blowout preventers that function under all foreseeable conditions-- in order to reduce the risk of another accident as catastrophic as the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. In addition, an enhanced regulatory approach should combine strong industry safety goals with mandatory oversight at critical points during drilling operations.

Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout discusses ultimate responsibility and accountability for well integrity and safety of offshore equipment, formal system safety education and training of personnel engaged in offshore drilling, and guidelines that should be established so that well designs incorporate protection against the various credible risks associated with the drilling and abandonment process. This book will be of interest to professionals in the oil and gas industry, government decision makers, environmental advocacy groups, and others who seek an understanding of the processes involved in order to ensure safety in undertakings of this nature.

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