Blaming the engineers

[docellen]

I just saw an excellent presentation by Shell Oil, "Drilling for Oil:
A Visual Presentation of How We Drill for Oil and the Precautions
Taken Along the Way", Joe Leimkuhler, John Hollowell, Aspen Ideas
Festival, July 2010. http://www.aifestival.org/audio-video-library.php?menu=3&title=639&action=full_info

After the talk, some wise guy asked "Would you hire an engineer from
BP". It got the expected laugh from the audience.

Engineers get blamed for a lot of things that are not their fault.
Maybe they are easy targets, because they are not involved in the
politics of situations like this. Maybe they don't know how to
defend
themselves. Whatever the reason, they are getting a bum rap.

Look at the major disasters of the last few years (space shuttle,
World Trade Center, New Orleans, and now the BP oil spill).
Engineers
did not make the decisions leading to these disasters. With the
possible exception of the World Trade Center, there is little they
could have done to avert the disaster, and much risk to their careers
if they made a fuss.

Look at the failed blowout preventer. This didn't happen because
some
engineer made a mistake in calculating the force necessary to shear a
drill pipe. They knew the chances of failure were 50%, and they
wrote
a report, two reports in fact, the second one confirming in detail
the
results of the first, and showing that it was true for a wide
selection of drill pipes from different manufacturers, and blowout
preventers from three different manufacturers. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshore_oil_spill_prevention for the
references. The problem, in my opinion, is that nobody listens to
the
engineers.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing this "editorial" in the middle of a
technical forum, is that I am encountering a lot of resistance in my
discussions with engineers. It's as if they feel I'm attacking them
by challenging the status quo. Guys (and gals) I'm on your side. I
am not blaming engineers for the fact that our current technology is
not as good as it could be. In the end, it will help our profession
if we speak up. We need to talk about how we can make things better.
Speak up now, and the world will listen. In a few years, things will
be back to "normal", and you will again get the blame for whatever
happens.

[MacQuigg]

Amazing presentation by Shell. While most oil experts seem unwilling
to talk, Shell is being candid with the public, even if it makes part
of their industry look bad.

You are right about engineers getting undeserved blame. When we do
something right, we get little credit, and even get ripped off if it
is something worth money. When we warn of problems, we are ignored.
When thing go wrong in spite of our warnings, we get the blame.

This disaster did not have to happen! Even after the blowout, it
could have been stopped, using the ideas presented in this forum. For
those who say - we can only know what to do in hindsight, let's hope
that an underground blowout doesn't prove them wrong. They need to
lower the pressure on that wellhead now. Whatever flow is necessary
to do that should be sent to the surface. If that flow is too much
for the available production capacity, they should burn the rest. All
it takes is simple plumbing.