Top House Democrats are asking federal officials to investigate whether Transocean’s decision to go to longer, three-week work shifts may have contributed to last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Seven months before the explosion on Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon rig, the drilling contractor switched its workers from a hitch schedule with 14 days on rigs followed by 14 days onshore to one with 21-day rotations.
According to the lawmakers, the “apparent cost-saving decision made by Transocean” had a negative impact on rig crews, who complained of fatigue at the end of the 21-day work periods offshore, according to a survey of the company’s workforce.
“We believe Transocean’s decision to move to the longer shift schedule should be closely examined,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo. “Six of the 11 people who died aboard the Deepwater Horizon were on day 20 of their 21-day shift and a seventh was on day 19.”
Waxman is the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee; DeGette is the lead Democrat on the panel’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.
The pair of lawmakers directed their request for an investigation into the scheduling change in letters today to the Chemical Safety Board and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which is probing the disaster in conjunction with the Coast Guard.
Waxman and DeGette cited documents marked classified that show the schedule shift saved Transocean about $200,000 per rig per year — or about $2.5 million annually for its entire fleet. The extra week of offshore time for workers translated to fewer flights on and off the rigs.
A Transocean spokesman defended the schedule change, and said it offered benefits for both the company and its workers. According to Transocean spokesman Brian Kennedy:
“Staffing drilling rigs on a 21-day-on/21-day-off schedule provides a variety of benefits for both employees and the company, including enhanced continuity of operations due to fewer crew changes, reduced crew travel, more contiguous time for crew at home and longer onshore intervals allowing for more comprehensive training.”
But an assessment of workers on the Deepwater Horizon, conducted in March 2010 by Lloyd’s Register and obtained by the lawmakers, found that employees were dealing with “fatigue issues” under the new 21-day cycles, especially during the final seven-day stretch on board the rig.
According to the assessment, as quoted by Waxman and DeGette, one manager on the Deepwater Horizon said there was a “big difference in their attitudes on the third week. . . . It’s mentally draining and I’ve got to watch my guys closer.” Another manager said the policy was “definitely increasing the risk of an incident.”
Separately Monday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and one of the leaders of a presidential oil spill inquiry questioned Transocean’s claim that 2010 was “the best year in safety performance” in the company’s history.
Congress seems intent on insuring BP pays a big fine – to them. But I have questions that Congress seems to have forgotten to ask. What caused the initial explosion? What caused the explosion at the bottom of the Gulf when no oxygen was present? What caused all safey interlocks and safety equipment to fail at the same time? What caused the platform to sink since it would require multiple compartments (all underwater) in several different legs to leak at the same time – especially when the surface explosion and the underwater explosion both were away from the legs?
I just wish we could get a decent days work out of any Democrat in the goverment. All they do is look at ways to screw up the country. Time to clean house in 2012.
What a crock! Many in the oil field work 28 and 28 without a problem.
To 45caliber, your response shows how little you understand this type of drilling vessel. It was a drilling ship and not a platform with support legs to the floor of the gulf and the reason for the sinking can be portioned out between the failure of the metal from the heat of the fires and pumping of water from the fire boats which caused compartments to fill. You do have a good question though in trying to better understand why the BOP system did not operate as intended.
Really!? 21 DAYS!!! Come on!!! Try 90 days without seeing the sun and a nuke power plant behiund you and then come talk to me about pressure. boo whoo. 21 days!!! And I bet you earned a lot more money than we did. You poor babies!
oilpatch 41 – with that name can you explain why the traders and Oil Co’s keep raising the price of Oil/Pump when their has been no real shortage of oil. How’s your stock?
Just so everyone here knows, they are working 12 hour shifts for 21 days. Often times, depending on the company and the individual, the shift can easily last for 16 hours a day.
c’mon guys an gals! c’mon 2012! lets get these democratic, rainbow types out of the way. notice? they live on our industrial income tax revenue, and gripe about how we make a living? we, in industry, the foundation of american industrial strength, of the world, pay our bills with long hours! take care of our own, and ours, with long hours. time off? you can do what you want to do, you can afford it! OOPS! forgot. . . rainbow greenies have outsourced most american industry up the yangzee river! 2012, pay bills, buy american. a tank of green? wont work. thanx!
I don’t see working 21 day a hitch as being an issue. I worked West Africa, a 3rd world country, on a 28 day rotation. I even knew many to work 35 day hitches. Sure, there is a cost savings to the longer hitch, however, the last thing I wanted to see was the short-timers (those working 14-14) in our environment. It is a little stressful after 28 days and, for me, 21 might have been easier, but, look at the calendar. 28-28 allowed a fair rotation, even for the holidays. One year you get Christmas at home, the next your back-to-back gets it. Politicians have no reason ruling on what they know nothing about. They need to work these jobs, live our lives, and serve in our military, all as an understudy before becoming law makers. I don’t pretend to know how to do their jobs, why do they pretend to know ours?
I work for Transocean on a deepwater drillship. I’m actually at work right now. We had some cry baby “rig hands” that wanted to go back to 14 day rotations. Their whole point was that “the last week of the rotation is the most dangerous blah blah blah”. They brought it up at a safety meeting and when they asked the Safety and Training Coordinator to back them up he said that studies had been performed and it was found that the third week of the hitch is when the least amount of accidents happen. The most dangerous week was found to be the first week.