21 Months On: The API Revisit Macondo And Voices The Lessons Learned

In this exclusive interview, Holly Hopkins, Senior Policy Advisor at the American Petroleum Institute (API) speaks with Oil & Gas IQ’s Editor In Chief, Tim Haïdar, about the lay of the regulatory landscape after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Blowout.

The explosion on board the Macondo Prospect’s Deepwater Horizon rig cost the lives of 11 rig workers and unleashed an oil slick of 4.9 million barrels that covered 180,000 square kilometres in the Gulf of Mexico. The severity of disaster, both economically and ecologically, was compounded by the multi-billion dollar feud between BP and its contractors, Transocean and Halliburton.     

In the course of the interview, Holly touches on:

·        The ways in which America is approaching HSE in offshore safety differently to its European counterparts

·        What has the API been doing to update its policies in the last 12 months?

·        How the API are approaching major challenges in HSE and the solutions to remedy them?

·        If we can ever stop Macondo type events from occurring or whether a strategy should be based on disaster mitigation

·        The progress and mission of the Houston-based Centre for Offshore Safety (COS)