Deepwater Horizons Revisited: Investigative Insights

On behalf of the Safety Institute of Australia and The University of Sydney Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Foundation, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies,  we invite you to attend Deepwater Horizon Revisited – Investigative Insights.

The Deepwater Horizon Film screening will provide background for presentations by Cheryl MacKenzie who was appointed as Lead the investigator by the US Chemical Safety Board, and by Peter Wilkinson, an adviser to their investigation of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

The workshop offers a unique opportunity to find out what were the most relevant issues related to process safety on the Deepwater Horizon rig on and before April 20, 2010, from people who have in-depth understanding in an event that had a powerful impact on the engineering fraternity.

Cheryl MacKenzie from the United States Chemical Safety Board and Peter Wilkinson, who provided support to the CSB during the investigation, will take us through some of the more important human and organisational factors and discuss how these can be put into practice and explain why the disaster was not a Black Swan.

The speakers will highlight the issues that should be at the forefront of our thinking in all the everyday operations we take so much for granted. Understanding process safety may save our lives, and the lives of our work mates.

Event Details:

SYDNEY:
Monday 20 February, 2017 – Palace Verona, 17 Oxford St, Paddington NSW

MELBOURNE:
Tuesday 21 February, 2017 – Palace Cinema Como, Cnr Toorak Rd & Chapel St, South Yarra,

ADELAIDE:
Thursday 23 February, 2017 – Palace Nova Cinemas, 3 Cinema Place, Adelaide

BRISBANE:
Friday 24 February, 2017 – Palace Barracks, 61 Petrie Terrace, Brisbane

Agenda:

12:00pm      Registration and Networking Lunch
12:45pm      Deepwater Horizon Screening
14:40pm      Break & afternoon Tea
15:00pm      Organisational issues from investigation perspective:
                      Presented by Cheryl Mackenzie
15:40pm      Operationalising organisational factors:
                      Presented by Peter Wilkinson
16:20pm      Q&A
16:55pm      Summary & Conclusion
17:00pm      Networking

What you will learn:

As a result of attending this Workshop delegates will be able to:

• Identify the key human errors and why they occurred
• Describe the most significant cognitive biases which affected the decision taking of those on the Deepwater Horizon rig and delayed the diagnosis of an incipient well event
• Discuss how hindsight bias affects our view of incident causation
• Explain the concept of the gap between ‘Work as Imagined’ it is done versus ‘Work as it is actually Done’ and why this poses a significant threat to safe operations.
• Describe how “active monitoring” by supervisors at all levels is an essential tool in barrier management.
• Identify how organisations can move from identifying lessons to be learnt to learning and implementing lessons in practice
• Describe how the BPs priorities in workplace health and safety affected process safety management
• Summarise the prevailing theories which underpin a good organisational culture and be able to describe to colleagues’ ways in which organisational culture can be improved in practice

About your speakers:

Cheryl MacKenzie – Investigator at United States Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB)

Ms. Cheryl MacKenzie has been an investigator with the CSB since September 2004. She has been involved in numerous CSB incident investigations, including the 2005 BP Texas City refinery explosion, the 2007 Xcel Energy penstock fire, natural gas explosion events at both the ConAgra Foods facility in 2009 and Kleen Energy natural gas plant in 2010, the Texas Tech University laboratory explosion in 2010, the Macondo well blowout that same year, and the 2013 West Fertilizer Plan explosion, among others. In 2010 Cheryl was appointed to the CSB team charged with the investigation of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Mexico Gulf, headed by Bill Hoyle, Investigations Manager at the CSB.

Prior to her CSB work, Ms. MacKenzie conducted extensive study and research in the fields of nthropometrics, biomechanics, human information processing, and design. She has directed numerous usability assessments for clients in office, industrial, and virtual-world work settings. Ms. MacKenzie is a graduate of Cornell University with a Master’s degree specializing in Human Factors and Ergonomics.

Peter Wilkinson – General Manager, Risk Noetic Group

Peter is a strategic and innovative thinker in the design and implementation of safety and enterprise risk management arrangements. In 2010 to the CSB as an adviser to their investigation of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Peter’s successful career in regulatory roles, as well as in the senior leadership of a listed oil company (GM Operational Excellence and Risk at Caltex Australia) underpins the quality advice he offers Noetic clients.  His work with the United Kingdom’s Health and Safety Executive culminated in the design and construction of a new Australian statutory authority for offshore petroleum safety. Peter has particular expertise in operational and process safety risks for low probability but high consequence risk exposures in the oil and gas, chemical and mining industries as well as in the government sector. Peter typically leads strategic assessments of risk and safety management for organisations to identify material risks, diagnose the effectiveness of their risk controls, and implement improvements.

*This event is presented in association with The University of Sydney Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Foundation, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies.

Registration