On April 20th 2010 the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, operated by Transocean, exploded and eleven men lost their lives. But four months earlier in the North Sea on another Transocean rig, there had been a near miss with eerie similarities. In this hard hitting play we see the dramatic events onboard the Deepwater Horizon on the day of the disaster, and we follow the investigations as they uncover negligence, poor regulation, inadequate maintenance, catastrophic decision making and what the US authorities described as ‘a reckless disregard for safety’.
BP’s own account, the Bly Report, uses James Reason’s Swiss Cheese model to show what BP believes were the failures which led to the deaths on board the Deepwater Horizon rig. This reconstruction examines these and other factors which came into catastrophic alignment in the Gulf of Mexico. But the seeds were sown much earlier, and some important warnings were not accorded sufficient importance. Our story is based on the testimony of those on board the Deepwater Horizon, from US Congressional hearings, and from the official reports into the disaster.