Case Study 1: Part 2 Gulf Oil Spill

First, go back and review, as needed, any of the documents you researched in the last module relating to the BP Gulf oil spill.

Using the information from Deep Water Horizon explosion and the PHL you constructed, it is time to put what we learned in this module to good use. Take the PHL you made in Part 1 of this case study and construct a detailed Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA) on each item on your PHL. Realize that the PHA takes what your brainstorming session came up with in the PHL and gets a little more into the weeds with such things as causal factors, consequences, and relative risk. These are the things you should focus on in a one to two-page report to your boss. Use the Risk Assessment Matrix to quantify the risks you identify (see the example form on page 12 in the MIL STD 882E (PDF) for the risk assessment matrix ).

As stated in Part 1 of this case study, there are no right or wrong answers. You might even come up with something that the investigators of this explosion never even thought to explore. Put on your thinking caps and get outside the box. If you feel you need to research this accident further, you are free to use any credible sources to get a better feel for what happened. Just remember to cite any sources you use in your report.

This assignment has two requirements that must be completed. The first is a chart presenting the data you used to construct your PHA (examples are found in the Ericson text). The second is a short narrative to the boss telling them why the items you show in your PHA are important and need to be addressed. Both of these must be turned in for this case study.

Note: A good example of the PHA can be found on pages 137-142 of the Ericson text (Tables 8.3-8.8). Another good example can be found on page 89 in the Vincoli text, Basic Guide to System Safety (Links to an external site.) (Hunt Library).