Deep Water

i i Dedication This report is dedicated to the 11 men who lost their lives on the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20, 2010 and to their families, in hope that this report will help minimize the chance of another such disaster ever happening again. Jason Anderson Aaron Dale Burkeen Donald Clark Stephen Curtis Gordon Jones Roy Wyatt Kemp Karl Dale Kleppinger, Jr. Blair Manuel Dewey Revette Shane Roshto Adam Weise ii Acknowledgements We wish to acknowledge the many individuals and organizations, government officials and agencies alike that offered their views and insights to the Commission.We would especially like to express our gratitude to the Coast Guard’s Incident Specific Preparedness Review (ISPR) for allowing Commission staff to participate in its interviews and discussions, which was invaluable to the preparation of this report. (A copy of the Coast Guard’s ISPR report can be found at the Commission’s website at www. oilspillcommission. gov). We would also li ke to thank Chevron for performing the cement tests that proved so critical to our investigation into the Macondo well blowout. Related article: Why Nations Fail Chapter 5We also thank the Department of Energy, which served as our supporting agency, and all of the Department employees whose assistance was so essential to the success and functioning of the Commission. In particular, we would like to thank Christopher Smith, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oil and Natural Gas, who acted as the Commission’s Designated Federal Officer, as well as Elena Melchert, Petroleum Engineer in the Office of Oil and Gas Resource Conservation, who served as the Committee Manager. But most importantly, we are deeply grateful to the citizens of the Gulf who shared their personal xperiences as Commissioners traveled in the region, providing a critical human dimension to the disaster and to our undertaking, as well as the many people who testified at the Commission’s hearings, provided public comments, and submitted statements to our website. Together, these contributions greatly informed our work and led to a bette r report. Thank you one and all. Copyright, Restrictions, and Permissions Notice Except as noted herein, materials contained in this report are in the public domain.Public domain information may be freely distributed and copied. However, this report contains illustrations, photographs, and other information contributed by or licensed from private individuals, companies, or organizations that may be protected by U. S. and/or foreign copyright laws. Transmission or reproduction of items protected by copyright may require the written permission of the copyright owner. When using material or images from this report we ask that you credit this report, as well as the source of the material as indicated in this report. Permission to use materials copyrighted by other individuals, companies or organizations must be obtained directly from those sources. This report contains links to many Web sites. Once you access another site through a link that we provide, you are subject to the use, copyr ight and licensing restrictions of that site. Neither the Government nor the National Commission on the BP/Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling (Commission) endorses any of the organizations or views represented by the linked sites unless expressly stated in the report.The Government and the Commission take no responsibility for, and exercise no control over, the content, accuracy or accessibility of the material contained on the linked sites. Cover Photo:  © Steadfast TV ISBN: 978-0-16-087371-3 iii iii Deep Water The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling Report to the President National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling January 2011 iv Commission Members Bob Graham, Co-Chair William K. Reilly, Co-Chair Frances Beinecke Donald F. Boesch Terry D. Garcia Cherry A. Murray Fran Ulmer v Table of Contents Foreword PART I: The Path to Tragedy Chapter 1 â€Å"Everyone involved with the job†¦was completely satisfiedâ⠂¬ ¦. † The Deepwater Horizon, the Macondo Well, and Sudden Death on the Gulf of Mexico vi xiii 1 21 Chapter 2 â€Å"Each oil well has its own personality† The History of Offshore Oil and Gas in the United States Chapter 3 â€Å"It was like pulling teeth. † Oversight—and Oversights—in Regulating Deepwater Energy Exploration and Production in the Gulf of Mexico 55 PART II: Explosion and Aftermath: The Causes and Consequences of the Disaster Chapter 4 But, who cares, it’s done, end of story, [we] will probably be fine and we’ll get a good cement job. † The Macondo Well and the Blowout 87 89 Chapter 5 â€Å"You’re in it now, up to your neck! † Response and Containment 129 173 197 Chapter 6 â€Å"The worst environmental disaster America has ever faced. † Oiling a Rich Environment: Impacts and Assessment Chapter 7 â€Å"People have plan fatigue . . . they’ve been planned to death† Recovery and Restor ation PART III: Lessons Learned: Industry, Government, Energy Policy Chapter 8 â€Å"Safety is not proprietary. † Changing Business as Usual 215 217Chapter 9 â€Å"Develop options for guarding against, and mitigating the impact of, oil spills associated with offshore drilling. † Investing in Safety, Investing in Response, Investing in the Gulf 249 Chapter 10 American Energy Policy and the Future of Offshore Drilling 293 307 356 358 359 362 365 366 368 Endnotes Appendices Appendix A: Commission Members Appendix B: List of Acronyms Appendix C: Executive Order Appendix D: Commission Staff and Consultants Appendix E: List of Commission Meetings Appendix F: List of Staff Working Papers Index vi Photo: Susan Walsh, Associated PressThe explosion that tore through the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig last April 20, as the rig’s crew completed drilling the exploratory Macondo well deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, began a human, economic, and environmental disas ter. Eleven crew members died, and others were seriously injured, as fire engulfed and ultimately destroyed the rig. And, although the nation would not know the full scope of the disaster for weeks, the first of more than four million barrels of oil began gushing uncontrolled into the Gulf—threatening livelihoods, precious habitats, and even a unique way of life.A treasured American landscape, already battered and degraded from years of mismanagement, faced yet another blow as the oil spread and washed ashore. Five years after Hurricane Katrina, the nation was again transfixed, seemingly helpless, as this new tragedy unfolded in the Gulf. The costs from this one industrial accident are not yet fully counted, but it is already clear that the impacts on the region’s natural systems and people were enormous, and that economic losses total tens of billions of dollars.On May 22, 2010, President Barack Obama announced the creation of the National Commission on the BP Deepwat er Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling: an independent, nonpartisan entity, directed to provide a thorough analysis and impartial judgment. The President charged the Commission to determine the causes of the disaster, and to improve the country’s ability to respond to spills, and to recommend reforms to make offshore energy production safer. And the President said we were to follow the facts wherever they led. This report is the result of an intense six-month effort to fulfill the President’s charge.Foreword vii vii From the outset, the Commissioners have been determined to learn the essential lessons so expensively revealed in the tragic loss of life at the Deepwater Horizon and the severe damages that ensued. The Commission’s aim has been to provide the President, policymakers, industry, and the American people a clear, accessible, accurate, and fair account of the largest oil spill in U. S history: the context for the well itself, how the explosion and sp ill happened, and how industry and government scrambled to respond to an unprecedented emergency.This was our first obligation: determine what happened, why it happened, and explain it to Americans everywhere. As a result of our investigation, we conclude: †¢ †¢ The explosive loss of the Macondo well could have been prevented. The immediate causes of the Macondo well blowout can be traced to a series of identifiable mistakes made by BP Halliburton, and Transocean that reveal such , systematic failures in risk management that they place in doubt the safety culture of the entire industry. Deepwater energy exploration and production, particularly at the frontiers of experience, involve risks for which neither industry nor overnment has been adequately prepared, but for which they can and must be prepared in the future. To assure human safety and environmental protection, regulatory oversight of leasing, energy exploration, and production require reforms even beyond those sign ificant reforms already initiated since the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Fundamental reform will be needed in both the structure of those in charge of regulatory oversight and their internal decisionmaking process to ensure their political autonomy, technical expertise, and their full consideration of environmental protection concerns.Because regulatory oversight alone will not be sufficient to ensure adequate safety, the oil and gas industry will need to take its own, unilateral steps to increase dramatically safety throughout the industry, including self-policing mechanisms that supplement governmental enforcement. The technology, laws and regulations, and practices for containing, responding to, and cleaning up spills lag behind the real risks associated with deepwater drilling into large, high-pressure reservoirs of oil and gas located far offshore and thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface.Government must close the existing gap and industry must support rather than r esist that effort. Scientific understanding of environmental conditions in sensitive environments in deep Gulf waters, along the region’s coastal habitats, and in areas proposed for more drilling, such as the Arctic, is inadequate. The same is true of the human and natural impacts of oil spills. †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ viii We reach these conclusions, and make necessary recommendations, in a constructive spirit: we aim to promote changes that will make American offshore energy exploration and production far safer, today and in the future.More broadly, the disaster in the Gulf undermined public faith in the energy industry, government regulators, and even our own capability as a nation to respond to crises. It is our hope that a thorough and rigorous accounting, along with focused suggestions for reform, can begin the process of restoring confidence. There is much at stake, not only for the people directly affected in the Gulf region, but for the American peopl e at large. The tremendous resources that exist within our outer continental shelf belong to the nation as a whole.The federal government’s authority over the shelf is accordingly plenary, based on its power as both the owner of the resources and in its regulatory capacity as sovereign to protect public health, safety, and welfare. To be allowed to drill on the outer continental shelf is a privilege to be earned, not a private right to be exercised. â€Å"Complex Systems Almost Always Fail in Complex Ways† As the Board that investigated the loss of the Columbia space shuttle noted, â€Å"complex systems almost always fail in complex ways. Though it is tempting to single out one crucial misstep or point the finger at one bad actor as the cause of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, any such explanation provides a dangerously incomplete picture of what happened—encouraging the very kind of complacency that led to the accident in the first place. Consistent with the President’s request, this report takes an expansive view. Why was a corporation drilling for oil in mile-deep water 49 miles off the Louisiana coast? To begin, Americans today consume vast amounts of petroleum products—some 18. 7 million barrels per day—to fuel our economy.Unlike many other oil-producing countries, the United States relies on private industry—not a state-owned or -controlled enterprise—to supply oil, natural gas, and indeed all of our energy resources. This basic trait of our private-enterprise system has major implications for how the U. S. government oversees and regulates offshore drilling. It also has advantages in fostering a vigorous and competitive industry, which has led worldwide in advancing the technology of finding and extracting oil and gas. Even as land-based oil production extended as far as the northern Alaska frontier, the oil and gas industry began to move offshore.The industry first moved into shallow water and e ventually into deepwater, where technological advances have opened up vast new reserves of oil and gas in remote areas—in recent decades, much deeper under the water’s surface and farther offshore than ever before. The Deepwater Horizon was drilling the Macondo well under 5,000 feet of Gulf water, and then over 13,000 feet under the sea floor to the hydrocarbon reservoir below. It is a complex, even dazzling, enterprise. The remarkable advances that have propelled the move to deepwater drilling merit comparison with exploring outer space.The Commission is respectful and admiring of the industry’s technological capability. ix ix But drilling in deepwater brings new risks, not yet completely addressed by the reviews of where it is safe to drill, what could go wrong, and how to respond if something does go awry. The drilling rigs themselves bristle with potentially dangerous machinery. The deepwater environment is cold, dark, distant, and under high pressuresâ€⠀and the oil and gas reservoirs, when found, exist at even higher pressures (thousands of pounds per square inch), compounding the risks if a well gets out of control.The Deepwater Horizon and Macondo well vividly illustrated all of those very real risks. When a failure happens at such depths, regaining control is a formidable engineering challenge—and the costs of failure, we now know, can be catastrophically high. In the years before the Macondo blowout, neither industry nor government adequately addressed these risks. Investments in safety, containment, and response equipment and practices failed to keep pace with the rapid move into deepwater drilling.Absent major crises, and given the remarkable financial returns available from deepwater reserves, the business culture succumbed to a false sense of security. The Deepwater Horizon disaster exhibits the costs of a culture of complacency. The Commission examined in great detail what went wrong on the rig itself. Our investi gative staff uncovered a wealth of specific information that greatly enhances our understanding of the factors that led to the explosion. The separately published report of the chief counsel (a summary of the findings is presented in Chapter 4) offers the fullest account yet of what happened on the rig and why.There are recurring themes of missed warning signals, failure to share information, and a general lack of appreciation for the risks involved. In the view of the Commission, these findings highlight the importance of organizational culture and a consistent commitment to safety by industry, from the highest management levels on down. * But that complacency affected government as well as industry. The Commission has documented the weaknesses and the inadequacies of the federal regulation and oversight, and made important recommendations for changes in legal authority, regulations, investments in expertise, and management.The Commission also looked at the effectiveness of the res ponse to the spill. There were remarkable instances of dedication and heroism by individuals involved in the rescue and cleanup. Much was done well—and thanks to a combination of good luck and hard work, the worst-case scenarios did not all come to pass. But it is impossible to argue that the industry or the country was prepared for a disaster of the magnitude of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Twenty years after the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, the same blunt response technologies—booms, dispersants, and skimmers—were used, to limited effect.On-the-ground shortcomings in the joint public-private response to an overwhelming spill like that resulting from the blowout of the Macondo well are now evident, and demand public and private investment. So do the weaknesses in local, state, and federal coordination revealed by the emergency. Both government and industry failed to anticipate and prevent this catastrophe, and failed again to be prepared to respond to it. *The chief counsel’s investigation was no doubt complicated by the lack of subpoena power. Nonetheless, Chief Counsel Bartlit did an extraordinary job building the record and interpreting what he learned.He used his considerable powers of persuasion along with other tools at his disposal to engage the involved companies in constructive and informative exchanges. x If we are to make future deepwater drilling safer and more environmentally responsible, we will need to address all these deficiencies together; a piecemeal approach will surely leave us vulnerable to future crises in the communities and natural environments most exposed to offshore energy exploration and production. The Deepwater Drilling Prospect The damage from the spill and the impact on the people of the Gulf has guided our work from the very beginning.Our first action as a Commission was to visit the Gulf region, to learn directly from those most affected. We heard deeply moving accounts from oystermen witness ing multi-generation family businesses slipping away, fishermen and tourism proprietors bearing the brunt of an ill-founded stigma affecting everything related to the Gulf, and oil-rig workers dealing with mounting bills and threatened home foreclosures, their means of support temporarily derailed by a blanket drilling moratorium, shutting down all deepwater drilling rigs, including those not implicated in the BP spill.Indeed, the centrality of oil and gas exploration to the Gulf economy is not widely appreciated by many Americans, who enjoy the benefits of the energy essential to their transportation, but bear none of the direct risks of its production. Within the Gulf region, however, the role of the energy industry is well understood and accepted. The notion of clashing interests—of energy extraction versus a natural-resource economy with bountiful fisheries and tourist amenities—misses the extent to which the energy industry is woven into the fabric of the Gulf cul ture and economy, providing thousands of jobs and essential public revenues.Any discussion of the future of offshore drilling cannot ignore these economic realities. But those benefits have imposed their costs. The bayous and wetlands of Louisiana have for decades suffered from destructive alteration to accommodate oil exploration. The Gulf ecosystem, a unique American asset, is likely to continue silently washing away unless decisive action is taken to start the work of creating a sustainably healthy and productive landscape. No one should be deluded that restoration on the scale required will occur quickly or cheaply.Indeed, the experience in restoring other large, sensitive regions—the Chesapeake Bay, the Everglades, the Great Lakes—indicates that progress will require coordinated federal and state actions, a dedicated funding source, long-term monitoring, and a vocal and engaged citizenry, supported by robust non-governmental groups, scientific research, and more. We advocate beginning such an effort, seriously and soon, as a suitable response to the damage and disruption caused by the Deepwater Horizon emergency.It is a fair recognition not only of the costs that energy exploitation in the Gulf has, for decades, imposed on the landscape and habitats—and the other economic activities they support—but also of the certainty that Americans will continue to develop the region’s offshore energy resources. For the simple fact is that the bulk of our newly discovered petroleum reserves, and the best prospects for future discoveries, lie not on land, but under water. To date, we have xi xi made the decision as a nation to exploit the Gulf ’s offshore energy resources—ruling much of the Florida, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts out of bounds for drilling.The choice of how aggressively to exploit these resources, wherever they may be found, has profound implications for the future of U. S. energy policy, for our need to u nderstand and assure the integrity of fragile environmental resources, and for the way Americans think about our economy and our security. Although much work is being done to improve the fuelefficiency of vehicles and to develop alternative fuels, we cannot realistically walk away from these offshore oil resources in the near future. So we must be much better prepared to exploit such resources with far greater care. The Commission and Its WorkWhile we took a broad view of the spill, it could not be exhaustive. There is still much we do not know—for instance, the blowout preventer, the last line of defense against loss of well control, is still being analyzed; and the Deepwater Horizon itself, after its explosive destruction, remained out of reach during our investigation. The understandable, immediate need to provide answers and concrete suggestions trumped the benefits of a longer, more comprehensive investigation. And as we know from other spills, their environmental conseq uences play out over decades—and often in unexpected ways.Instead, the Commission focused on areas we thought most likely to inform practical recommendations. Those recommendations are presented in the spirit of transforming America into the global leader for safe and effective offshore drilling operations. Just as this Commission learned from the experiences of other nations in developing our recommendations, the lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon disaster are not confined to our own government and industry, but relevant to rest of the world. We wish we could say that our recommendations make a recurrence of a disaster like the Macondo blowout impossible. We do not have that power.No one can eliminate all risks associated with deepwater exploration. But when exploration occurs, particularly in sensitive environments like the Gulf of Mexico or the Arctic, the country has an obligation to make responsible decisions regarding the benefits and risks. The report is divide d into three sections. Chapters 1 through 3 describe the events of April 20th on the Deepwater Horizon, and, more important, the events leading up to it in the preceding decades—especially how the dramatic expansion of deepwater drilling in the Gulf was not met by regulatory oversight capable of ensuring the safety of those drilling operations.Chapters 4 through 7 lay out the results of our investigation in detail, highlighting the crucial issues we believe must inform policy going forward: the specific engineering and operating choices made in drilling the Macondo well, the attempts to contain and respond to the oil spill, and the impacts of the spill on the region’s natural resources, economy, and people—in the context of the progressive degradation of the Mississippi Delta environment. xii Chapters 8 through 10 present our recommendations for reforms in business practices, regulatory oversight, and broader policy concerns.We recognize that the improvements we advocate all come with costs and all will take time to implement. But inaction, as we are deeply aware, runs the risk of real costs, too: in more lost lives, in broad damage to the regional economy and its long-term viability, and in further tens of billions of dollars of avoidable clean-up costs. Indeed, if the clear challenges are not addressed and another disaster happens, the entire offshore energy enterprise is threatened—and with it, the nation’s economy and security.We suggest a better option: build from this tragedy in a way that makes the Gulf more resilient, the country’s energy supplies more secure, our workers safer, and our cherished natural resources better protected. Our Thanks and Dedication We thank President Obama for this opportunity to learn thoroughly about the crisis, and to share our findings with the American public. We deeply appreciate the effort people in the affected Gulf regions made to tell us about their experiences, and the time and preparation witnesses before the Commission dedicated to their presentations.We have come to respect the seriousness with which our fellow Commissioners assumed our joint responsibilities, and their diverse expertise and perspectives that helped make its work thorough and productive. On their behalf, we wish to recognize the extraordinary work the Commission’s staff—scientists, lawyers, engineers, policy analysts, and more— performed, under demanding deadlines, to make our inquiries broad, deep, and effective; and we especially highlight the leadership contributions of Richard Lazarus, executive director, and Fred Bartlit, chief counsel.Together, they have fulfilled an extraordinary public service. Finally, to the American people, we reiterate that extracting the energy resources to fuel our cars, heat and light our homes, and power our businesses can be a dangerous enterprise. Our national reliance on fossil fuels is likely to continue for some time— and all of us reap benefits from the risks taken by the men and women working in energy exploration. We owe it to them to ensure that their working environment is as safe as possible. We dedicate this effort to the 11 of our fellow citizens who lost their lives in the Deepwater Horizon explosion.Bob Graham, Co-Chair William K. Reilly, Co-Chair xiii xiii xiii Part I The Path to Tragedy On April 20, 2010, the 126 workers on the BP Deepwater Horizon were going about the routines of completing an exploratory oil well—unaware of impending disaster. What unfolded would have unknown impacts shaped by the Gulf region’s distinctive cultures, institutions, and geography—and by economic forces resulting from the unique coexistence of energy resources, bountiful fisheries and wildlife, and coastal tourism.The oil and gas industry, long lured by Gulf reserves and public incentives, progressively developed and deployed new technologies, at ever-larger scales, in pursuit of va luable energy supplies in increasingly deeper waters farther from the coastline. Regulators, however, failed to keep pace with the industrial expansion and new technology—often because of industry’s resistance to more effective oversight. The result was a serious, and ultimately inexcusable, shortfall in supervision of offshore drilling that played out in the Macondo well blowout and the catastrophic oil spill that followed.Chapters 1 through 3 describe the interplay of private industry and public oversight in the distinctive Gulf deepwater context: the conditions that governed the deployment of the Deepwater Horizon and the drilling of the Macondo well. Chapter One 1 1 Chapter One â€Å"Everyone involved with the job . . . was completely satisfied. . . † The Deepwater Horizon, the Macondo Well, and Sudden Death on the Gulf of Mexico At 5:45 a. m. on Tuesday, April 20, 2010, a Halliburton Company cementing engineer sent an e-mail from the rig Deepwater Horizon, in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast, to his colleague in Houston.He had good news: â€Å"We have completed the job and it went well. †1 Outside in the Gulf, it was still dark—beyond the glare of the floodlights on the gargantuan rig, the four decks of which towered above the blue-green water on four huge white columns, all floating on massive pontoons. The oil derrick rose over 20 stories above the top deck. Up on the bridge on the main deck, two officers monitored the satelliteguided dynamic positioning system, controlling thrusters so powerful that they could keep the 33,000-ton Deepwater Horizon centered over a well even in high seas.The rig’s industrial hum and loud mechanical noises punctuated the sea air as a slight breeze blew in off the water. The crew worked on Pride of the Transocean fleet of offshore drilling rigs, Deepwater Horizon rides calmly on station 40 miles off the Louisiana coast. The $560-million-dollar rig, under lease to BP was p utting the finishing touches on the oil company’s , 18,000-foot-deep Macondo well when it blew out and escaping methane gas exploded. Eleven workers died in the inferno. According to the government’s estimates, by the time the well was sealed months later, over 4 million barrels of oil had spilled into the Gulf. lt; Photo courtesy of Transocean 2 National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling the well bore, aiming always to keep the pressure inside the well balancing the force exerted by the surrounding seabed. 2 By the time the Halliburton engineer had arrived at the rig four days earlier to help cement in the two-and-a-half-mile-deep Macondo well, some crew members had dubbed it â€Å"the well from hell. †3 Macondo was not the first well to earn that nickname;4 like many deepwater wells, it had proved complicated and challenging.As they drilled, the engineers had to modify plans in response to their increasing knowledge of the precise features of the geologic formations thousands of feet below. Deepwater drilling is an unavoidably tough, demanding job, requiring tremendous engineering expertise. BP drilling engineer Brian Morel, who had designed the Macondo well with other BP engineers including Mark Hafle, was also on board to observe the final stages of work at the well. 5 In an April 14 e-mail, Morel had lamented to his colleagues, â€Å"this has been [a] nightmare well which has everyone all over the place. 6 BP and its corporate partners on the well, Anadarko Petroleum and MOEX USA, had, according to government reports, budgeted $96. 2 million and 51 days of work to drill the Macondo well in Mississippi Canyon Block 252. 7 They discovered a large reservoir of oil and gas, but drilling had been challenging. As of April 20, BP and the Macondo well were almost six weeks behind schedule and more than $58 million over budget. 8 The Deepwater Horizon was not originally meant to drill Macondo. Another gian t rig, the Marianas, had initiated work on the well the previous October. Drilling had reached more than 9,000 feet below the ocean surface (4,000 feet below the seabed), with another 9,000 feet to go to â€Å"pay zone† (the oil and gas reservoir), when Hurricane Ida so battered the rig on November 9 that it had to be towed in for repair. Both Marianas and Deepwater Horizon were semisubmersible rigs owned by Transocean, founded in Louisiana in 1919 as Danciger Oil & Refining Co. and now the world’s largest contractor of offshore drilling rigs. 10 In 2009, Transocean’s global fleet produced revenues of $11. 6 billion. 1 Transocean had consolidated its dominant position in the industry in November 2007 by merging with rival GlobalSantaFe. 12 Deepwater Horizon, built for $350 million,13 was seen as the outstanding rig in Transocean’s fleet; leasing its services reportedly cost as much as $1 million per day. Since Deepwater Horizon’s 2001 maiden voyage to the Gulf, it had been under contract to London-based BP (formerly known as British Petroleum). By 2010, after numerous acquisitions, BP had become the world’s fourth-largest corporation (based on revenue)14 producing more than 4 million barrels of oil daily from 30 countries. Ten percent of BP’s output came from the Gulf of Mexico, where BP America (headquartered in Houston) was the largest producer. But BP had a tarnished reputation for safety. Among other BP accidents, 15 workers died in a 2005 explosion at its Texas City, Texas, refinery; in 2006, there was a major oil spill from a badly corroded BP pipeline in Alaska. * *A barrel equals 42 gallons. * * * Chapter One 3 3 Deepwater Horizon had arrived at the Macondo lease site on January 31, at 2:15 p. m. It was 55 degrees, chilly and clear—the night of a full moon.About 126 people were aboard: approximately 80 Transocean employees, a few BP men, cafeteria and laundry workers, and a changing group of worke rs contracted for specialized jobs. Depending on the status of the well, these might include Halliburton cementers, mud loggers from Sperry Sun (a Halliburton subsidiary), mud engineers from M-I SWACO (a subsidiary of Schlumberger, an international oilfield services provider), remotely operated vehicle technicians from Oceaneering, or tank cleaners and technicians from the OCS Group. The offices and living quarters were on the two bottom decks of the rig.Helicopters flew in and out regularly with workers and supplies, landing on the top-deck helipad, and service ships made regular visits. At its new Macondo assignment, Deepwater Horizon floated in 4,992 feet of water just beyond the gentle slope of the continental shelf in the Mississippi Canyon. 15 The seabed far below was near-freezing, visible to the crew only via cameras mounted on the rig’s subsea remotely operated vehicle. Another two and a half miles below the seabed was the prize BP sought: a large reservoir of oil an d gas from the Middle Miocene era trapped in a porous rock formation at temperatures exceeding 200 degrees. 6 These deepwater hydrocarbon fields, buried far below the seabed—not just in the Gulf, but in other oil-rich zones around the world, too—were the brave new oil frontier. The size of some deepwater fields was so huge that the oil industry had nicknamed those with a billion barrels or more â€Å"elephants. †17 Drilling for oil had always been hard, dirty, dangerous work, combining heavy machinery and volatile hydrocarbons extracted at high pressures. Since 2001, the Gulf of Mexico workforce—35,000 people, working on 90 big drilling rigs and 3,500 production platforms—had suffered 1,550 injuries, 60 deaths, and 948 fires and explosions. 8 The rig never slept. Most workers on Deepwater Horizon, from BP’s top â€Å"company man† down to the roustabouts, put in a 12-hour night or day shift, working three straight weeks on and then hav ing three weeks off. Rig workers made good money for the dangerous work and long stints away from home and family. Top rig and management jobs paid well into six figures. On the morning of April 20, Robert Kaluza was BP’s day-shift company man on the Deepwater Horizon. On board for the first time, he was serving for four days as a relief man for Ronald Sepulvado, a veteran well-site leader on the rig.Sepulvado had flown back to shore April 16 for a required well-control class. 19 During the rig’s daily 7:30 a. m. operations conference call to BP in Houston, engineer Morel discussed the good news that the final cement job at the bottom of the Macondo well had gone fine. 20 To ensure the job did not have problems, a three-man Schlumberger team was scheduled to fly out to the rig later that day, able to perform a suite of tests to examine the well’s new bottom cement seal. 21 4 National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore DrillingAccording to the BP team’s plan, if the cementing went smoothly, as it had, they could skip Schlumberger’s cement evaluation. Generally, the completion rig would perform this test when it reopened the well to produce the oil the exploratory drilling had discovered. The decision was made to send the Schlumberger team home on the 11:00 a. m. helicopter, thus saving time and the $128,000 fee. As BP Wells Team Leader John Guide noted, â€Å"Everyone involved with the job on the rig site was completely satisfied with the [cementing] job. 22 At 8:52 a. m. , Morel e-mailed the Houston office to reiterate: â€Å"Just wanted to let everyone know the cement job went well. Pressures stayed low, but we had full returns on the entire job†¦We should be coming out of the hole [well] shortly. † At 10:14 a. m. , David Sims, BP’s new drilling operations manager in charge of Macondo, e-mailed to say, â€Å"Great job guys! † * * * * The rest of the day would be devoted t o a series of further tests on the well—positiveand negative-pressure tests—in preparation for â€Å"temporary abandonment. * During the positive-pressure test, the drill crew would increase the pressure inside the steel casing and seal assembly to be sure they were intact. The negative-pressure test, by contrast, would reduce the pressure inside the well in order to simulate its state after the Deepwater Horizon had packed up and moved on. If pressure increased inside the well during the negative-pressure test, or if fluids flowed up from the well, that would indicate a well integrity problem—a leak of fluids into the well.Such a leak would be a worrisome sign that somewhere the casing and cement had been breached—in which case remedial work would be needed to reestablish the well’s integrity. At 10:43 a. m. , Morel, about to leave the rig on the helicopter with the Schlumberger team, sent a short e-mail laying out his plan for conducting the day ’s tests of the well’s integrity and subsequent temporary abandonment procedures. Few had seen the plan’s details when the rig supervisors and members of the drill team gathered for the rig’s daily 11:00 a. m. pre-tour meeting in the cinema room. Basically [we] go over what’s going to be taking place for today on the rig and the drill floor,† said Douglas Brown, chief mechanic. 23 During the rig meeting, the crew on the drill floor was conducting the Macondo well’s positive-pressure test. 24 The positive-pressure test on the casing was reassuring, a success. 25 There was reason for the mood on the rig to be upbeat. Ross Skidmore, a subsea engineer explained, â€Å"When you run the last string of casing, and you’ve got it cemented, it’s landed out, and a test was done on it, you say, ‘This job, we’re at the end of it, we’re going to be okay. †26 At noon, the drill crew began to run drill pipe int o the well in preparation for the negativepressure test later that evening. 27 By now, it was a sunny afternoon. Transocean’s top men on the rig, Jimmy Harrell and Captain Curt Kuchta, were standing together near the helipad, watching a helicopter gently land. Kuchta had come in from New Orleans just * Temporary abandonment describes the process, after successful exploration, for securing the well until the production platform can be brought in for the purpose of extracting the oil and gas from the reservoir. Chapter One 5 5 that morning to begin his three-week hitch.Harrell was the top Transocean man on the rig when—as now—the well was â€Å"latched up. † Captain Kuchta, who had served on the Deepwater Horizon since June 2008, was in command when the vessel was â€Å"unlatched† and thus once again a maritime vessel. 28 The helicopter landed, the doors opened, and four Houston executives stepped out to begin their 24-hour â€Å"management visibili ty tour. †29 Harrell and Kuchta greeted the VIPs. 30 Two were from Transocean: Buddy Trahan, vice president and operations manager for assets, and Daun Winslow, a one-time assistant driller who had worked his way up to operations manager.BP’s representatives were David Sims, the new drilling operations manager (he had sent the congratulatory e-mail about the cement just that morning), and Pat O’Bryan, vice-president for drilling and completions, Gulf of Mexico Deepwater. 31 At about 4:00 p. m. , Harrell began his escorted tour of the Deepwater Horizon for the VIPs. 32 He was joined by Chief Engineer Steve Bertone, on board since 2003, and senior toolpusher Randy Ezell, another top man on the rig. 33 Like Harrell, Ezell was an offshore veteran. He had worked for 23 years with Transocean34 and was now the senior man in charge of the drilling floor.He had been on the rig for years. If any people knew this rig, they were Harrell, Bertone, and Ezell; they showed the V IPs around. At 5:00 p. m. , the rig crew, including toolpusher Wyman Wheeler, began the negativepressure test. 35 After bleeding pressure from the well, the crew would close it off to check whether the pressure within the drill pipe would remain steady. But the pressure repeatedly built back up. As the crew conducted the test, the drill shack grew crowded. 36 The night crew began arriving to relieve the day shift, and Harrell brought the VIPs through as part of their tour. 7 â€Å"There was quite a few people in there,† said Transocean’s Winslow. â€Å"I tapped Dewey Revette on the shoulder. He was the driller master. I said, ‘Hey, how’s it going, Dewey? You got everything under control here? ’ â€Å"And he said, ‘Yes, sir. ’ â€Å"And there seemed to be a discussion going on about some pressure or a negative test. And I said to Jimmy [Harrell] and Randy Ezell, ‘Looks like they’re having a discussion here. Maybe you coul d give them some assistance. ’ And they happily agreed to that. †38 Bertone took over the tour, wandering on to look at the moon pool, down toward the pontoons and the thrusters. 9 The two shifts continued to discuss how to proceed. It was about 6:00 p. m. Jason Anderson, a tool pusher, turned to Ezell and said, â€Å"Why don’t you go eat? †40 Ezell had originally planned to attend a meeting with the VIPs at 7:00 p. m. He replied, â€Å"I can go eat and come back. †41 6 National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Anderson was from Bay City, Texas, and had been on the rig since it was built; he was highly respected as a man who understood the finer points of deepwater well control.This was his final shift on the Deepwater Horizon: he had been promoted to teaching in Transocean’s well-control school, and he was scheduled to fly out the next day. He told Ezell, â€Å"Man, you ain’t got to do that. Iâ⠂¬â„¢ve got this. Don’t worry about it. If I have any problems at all with this test I’ll give you a call. †42 â€Å"I knew Jason well,† said Ezell, â€Å"I’ve worked with him for all those years, eight or nine years†¦. He was just like a brother. So I had no doubt that if he had any indication of any problem or difficulty at all he would have called me. So I went ahead and ate. I did attend the meeting with the dignitaries. 43 Wheeler was â€Å"convinced that something wasn’t right,† recalled Christopher Pleasant, a subsea supervisor. Wheeler couldn’t believe the explanations he was hearing. But his shift was up. 44 Don Vidrine, the company man coming on the evening shift, eventually said that another negative test had to be done. 45 This time the crew members were able to get the pressure down to zero on a different pipe, the â€Å"kill line,† but still not for the drill pipe, which continued to show elevated pres sure. 46 According to BP witnesses, Anderson said he had seen this before and explained away the anomalous reading as the â€Å"bladder effect. 47 Whether for this reason or another, the men in the shack determined that no flow from the open kill line equaled a successful negative-pressure test. 48* It was time to get on with the rest of the temporary abandonment process. Kaluza, his shift over, headed off duty. 49 At 7:00 p. m. , after dinner, the VIPs had gathered in the third floor conference room with the rig’s leadership. According to BP’s Patrick O’Bryan, the Deepwater Horizon was â€Å"the best performing rig that we had in our fleet and in the Gulf of Mexico.And I believe it was one of the top performing rigs in all the BP floater fleets from the standpoint of safety and drilling performance. † O’Bryan, at his new job just four months, was on board in part to learn what made the rig such a stand-out. 50 Despite all the crew’s troubl es with this latest well,51 they had not had a single â€Å"lost-time incident† in seven years of drilling. 52 The Transocean managers discussed with their BP counterparts the backlog of rig maintenance. A September 2009 BP safety audit had produced a 30-page list of 390 items requiring 3,545 man-hours of work. 3 The managers reviewed upcoming maintenance schedules and discussed efforts to reduce dropped objects and personal injuries: on a rig with cranes, multiple decks, and complicated heavy machinery, errant objects could be deadly. 54 Around 9:00 p. m. , Transocean’s Winslow proposed they all go visit the bridge, which had not been part of their earlier tour. According to David Sims, the bridge was â€Å"kind of an impressive place if you hadn’t been there†¦[l]ots of screens†¦lots of technology. †55 The four * The precise content of this particular conversation is disputed and is considered more fully in Chapter 4.Chapter One 7 7 men walked outside. The Gulf air was warm and the water calm as glass. Beyond the glare of the rig’s lights, the night sky glimmered with stars. * * * * After concluding that the negative-pressure test was successful, the drilling crew prepared to set a cement plug56 deep in the well—3,000 feet below the top of the well. 57 They reopened the blowout preventer and began pumping seawater down the drill pipe to displace the mud and spacer* from the riser (the pipe that connected the rig to the well assembly on the seafloor below). 8 When the spacer appeared up at the surface, they stopped pumping because the fluid had to be tested to make sure it was clean enough to dump it in the Gulf, now that it had journeyed down into the well and back. By 9:15 p. m. , the crew began discharging the spacer overboard. 59 * * * * Inside the bridge, Captain Kuchta welcomed visitors Sims, O’Bryan, Trahan, and Winslow. 60 The two dynamic-positioning officers, Yancy Keplinger and Andrea Fleytas , were also on the bridge. 61 Keplinger was giving the visitors a tour of the bridge while Fleytas was at the desk station. 2 The officers explained how the rig’s thrusters kept the Deepwater Horizon in place above the well, showed off the radars and current meters, and offered to let the visiting BP men try their hands at the rig’s dynamic-positioning video simulator. 63 Winslow watched as the crew programmed in 70-knot winds and 30-foot seas, and hypothetically put two of the rig’s six thrusters out of commission. Then they put the simulator into manual mode and let Sims work the hand controls to maintain the rig’s location. Keplinger was advising about how much thrust to use.Winslow decided it was a good moment to go grab a quick cup of coffee and a smoke. He walked down to the rig’s smoking area, poured some coffee, and lit his cigarette. 64 * * * * Senior Toolpusher Randy Ezell left the evening meeting with BP feeling pleased at their praise à ¢â‚¬Å"on how good a job we had done†¦How proud they were of the rig. † He stopped in at the galley to get a beverage before continuing to his office. At 9:20, he called Anderson up on the rig floor and asked, â€Å"‘How did your negative test go? ’†65 Anderson: â€Å"It went good. . . . We bled it off. We watched it for 30 minutes and we had no flow. Ezell: â€Å"What about your displacement? How’s it going? † Anderson: â€Å"It’s going fine. . . . It won’t be much longer and we ought to have our spacer back. † * As described more fully in Chapter 4, a â€Å"spacer† is a liquid that separates drilling mud used during the drilling operations from the seawater that is pumped in to displace the mud once drilling is complete. 8 National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Ezell: â€Å"Do you need any help from me? † Anderson: â€Å"No, man. . . . I’ve got this. . . . Go to bed. I’ve got it. † Ezell concluded: â€Å"Okay. 66 Ezell walked to his cabin. He had worked with Anderson since the rig came from the shipyard. He had complete confidence in him. â€Å"Jason was very acute on what he did. . . he probably had more experience as far as shutting in for kicks than any individual on the Deepwater Horizon. † So Ezell prepared for bed, called his wife, and then turned off the lights to watch a bit of TV before going to sleep. 67 * * * * Up on the bridge, O’Bryan was taking his turn on the simulator. 68 Sims had stepped to the opposite side of the bridge when he felt a distinct high-frequency vibration. 9 Captain Kuchta looked up and remarked â€Å"What’s that? † He strode to the port-side door and opened it. 70 Outside, O’Bryan could see the supply vessel Bankston glistening with what looked like drilling mud. 71 The captain shut the door â€Å"and told everybody to stay inside. †72 Then the re began a hissing noise. 73 * * * * BP’s Vidrine had headed back to his office to do paperwork. He had been there about 10 to 15 minutes when the phone rang. It was Anderson, who reported â€Å"they were getting mud back and were diverting to the gas buster. † Vidrine grabbed his hard hat and started for the drill floor.By the time he got outside, â€Å"[t]here was mud and seawater blowing everywhere, there was a mud film on the deck. I decided not to continue and came back across. †74 * * * * Down in Ezell’s cabin, he was still watching TV when his phone rang. It was assistant driller Steve Curtis calling, also from the rig floor. â€Å"We have a situation. †¦The well is blown out. . . . We have mud going to the crown. † Ezell was horrified. â€Å"Do y’all have it shut in? †75 Curtis: â€Å"Jason is shutting it in now. . . Randy, we need your help. † Ezell: â€Å"Steve, I’ll be—I’ll be right there. 76 He put on his coveralls, pulled his socks on, and opened the door to go across the hall to his office for his boots and hard hat. Once in the hall, â€Å"a tremendous explosion†¦ blew me probably 20 feet against a bulkhead, against the wall in that office. And I remember then that the lights went out, power went out. I could hear everything deathly calm. †77 * * * * Chapter One 9 9 Up on the main deck, gantry crane operator Micah Sandell was working with the roustabouts. â€Å"I seen mud shooting all the way up to the derrick. . . . Then it just quit. . . I took a deep breath thinking that ‘Oh, they got it under control. Then all the sudden the. . . mud started coming out of the degasser. . . so strong and so loud that it just filled up the whole back deck with a gassy smoke. . . loud enough. . . it’s like taking an air hose and sticking it in your ear. Then something exploded. . . that started the first fire†¦ on the starboard side of the derrick. †78 Sandell jumped up and turned off the crane cab’s air conditioner, worried that the gas would come in. â€Å"And about that time everything in the back just exploded at one time. It. . . knocked me to the back of the cab. I fell to the floor. . put my hands over my head and I just said, ‘No, God, no. ’ Because I thought that was it. †79 Then the flames pulled back from his crane and began to shoot straight up, roaring up and over the 20-story derrick. 80 * * * * Down in the engine control room, Chief Mechanic Douglas Brown, an Army veteran employed by Transocean, was filling out the nightly log and equipment hours. He had spent the day fixing a saltwater pipe in one of the pontoons. First, he noticed an â€Å"extremely loud air leak sound. † Then a gas alarm sounded, followed by more and more alarms wailing.In the midst of that noise, Brown noticed someone over the radio. â€Å"I heard the captain or chief mate, I’m not sure who, ma ke an announcement to the standby boat, the Bankston, saying we were in a well-control situation. †81 The vessel was ordered to back off to 500 meters. 82 Now Brown could hear the rig’s engines revving. â€Å"I heard them revving up higher and higher and higher. Next I was expecting the engine trips to take over. . . . That did not happen. After that the power went out. † Seconds later, an explosion ripped through the pitch-black control room, hurtling him against the control panel, blasting away the floor.Brown fell through into a subfloor full of cable trays and wires. A second huge explosion roared through, collapsing the ceiling on him. All around in the dark he could hear people screaming and crying for help. 83 Dazed and buried in debris, he pulled himself out of the subfloor hole. In front of him appeared Mike Williams, chief electronic technician, blood pouring from a wound on his forehead, crawling over the rubble, screaming that he had to get out. 84 * * * * Steve Bertone, the rig’s chief engineer, had been in bed, reading the first sentence of his book, when he noticed an odd noise. As it progressively got louder, it sounded like a freight train coming through my bedroom and then there was a thumping sound that consecutively got much faster and with each thump, I felt the rig actually shake. †85 After a loud boom, the lights went out. 86 He leapt out of bed, opening his door to let in the emergency hall light so he could get dressed. 87 The overhead public-address system crackled to life: â€Å"Fire. Fire. Fire. † 88 10 National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling The air smelled and tasted of some kind of fuel.A second explosion roared through, flinging Bertone across his room. He stood up, pulled on his coveralls, work boots, and hard hat, and grabbed a life vest. Out in the hall, clogged with debris from blown-out walls and ceilings, four or five men stood in shock. Berton e yelled to them to go out by the port forward or starboard forward spiral staircases and report to their emergency stations. He ran toward the bridge. 89 He went to the portside back computer, the dynamic positioning system responsible for maintaining the rig’s position. â€Å"I observed that we had no engines, no thrusters, no power whatsoever.I picked up the phone which was right there and I tried calling extension 2268, which is the engine control room. There was no dial tone whatsoever. † It was then that Bertone looked out to the bridge’s starboard window. â€Å"I was fully expecting to see steel and pipe and everything on the rig floor. † â€Å"When I looked out the window, I saw fire from derrick leg to derrick leg and as high as I could see. At that point, I realized that we had just had a blowout. †90 Fleytas hit the general alarm. 91 The alarm went off: â€Å"Report to emergency stations and lifeboats. † The rig crew heard:  "This is not a drill. This is not a drill. 92 Fleytas, realizing that the rig had not yet issued a Mayday call, sent it out. 93 Out in the dark of the Gulf, three friends on the 31-foot Ramblin’ Wreck were out on the water for a day of tuna fishing. 94 Around 9:45 p. m. , Bradley Shivers trained his binoculars at a brilliant light in the distance and realized it must be an oil rig on fire. 95 On their radio, they heard, â€Å"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, this is the Deepwater Horizon. We are on fire. †96 At that moment they â€Å"heard and felt a concussive sonic boom. †97 The Ramblin’ Wreck headed to the scene, their first tuna outing of the year cut short. 8 Bertone was now back to his station on the bridge, thinking, â€Å"The engines should be starting up because in approximately 25 to 30 seconds two engines start up, come online. . . . There was still no power of any kind. No engines starting; no indication of engines starting. †99 At that moment, the water-tight door to his left banged open and he heard someone say, â€Å"The engine room ECR [engine control room] and pump room are gone. They are all gone. † Bertone turned around, â€Å"What do you mean gone? † The man speaking was so coated in blood Bertone had no idea who he was. Then he recognized the voice. It was Mike Williams.Bertone saw how badly lacerated Williams’s forehead was, grabbed a roll of toilet paper from the bathroom, pressed it on the wound to staunch the bleeding, and ordered, â€Å"Hold this here. †100 Then he went back to his station and looked at his screen. â€Å"There was still nothing, no engines starting, no thrusters running, nothing. We were still [a] dead ship. †101 He heard the water-tight door slam again and saw another man soaked in blood, holding a rag to his head, repeating, â€Å"I’m hurt. I’m hurt bad, Chief. I’m hurt real bad. † It was the voice of Brent Mansfield, a Transoce an marine engineer. Bertone pulled back Mansfield’sChapter One 11 11 hand holding a rag, saw the head wound, and ran over to the bridge door and yelled down to the life-vessel area, â€Å"We need a medic up here now. †102 * * * * After the explosion, Randy Ezell lay buried under the blown-out walls and ceilings of the toolpusher’s office. The room was dark and smoky, the debris atop him so heavy he could barely move. On the third try, adrenalin kicked in. â€Å"I told myself, ‘Either you get up or you’re going to lay here and die. ’† Pulling hard on his right leg, he extricated it and tried to stand up. â€Å"That was the wrong thing to do because I immediately stuck my head into smoke. . . I dropped back down. I got on my hands and knees and for a few moments I was totally disoriented. † He wondered which way the door was. He felt air. He crawled through the debris toward the door and realized the â€Å"air† was methane. He could feel the droplets. He was crawling slowly atop the rubble in the pitch-black hall when he felt a body. 103 Ezell then saw a bobbing beam of light. Stan Carden, the electrical supervisor, came round the corner. Carden had a light that bounced off shattered walls and collapsed ceilings in the pitch-black corridor, giving glimpses into rooms on each side wrecked by the power of the blast. 04 Stumbling into what was left of the hall was Offshore Installation Manager Jimmy Harrell, who had been in the shower when the rig exploded;105 he had donned coveralls, and now was groping his way out of what was left of his room. â€Å"I think I’ve got something in my eyes,† Harrell said. He had no shoes. â€Å"I got to see if I can find me some shoes. †106 Carden and Ezell tugged debris off the man they now recognized as Wyman Wheeler. Chad Murray, Transocean’s Chief Electrician, also appeared in the hall with a flashlight, and was immediately dispatched to fi nd a stretcher for the injured man. 07 Believing it would save time to walk Wheeler out, Ezell slung Wheeler’s arm around his shoulder. Wheeler groaned, â€Å"Set me down . . . . Y’all go on. Save yourself. †108 Ezell said, â€Å"No, we’re not going to leave you. We’re not going to leave you in here. †109 Just then, they heard another voice from under the rubble: â€Å"God help me. Somebody please help me. † Near the ruins of the maintenance office the flashlight picked out a pair of feet jutting from the rubble. It was the visiting Transocean manager, Buddy Trahan, badly injured. By now Murray was there with a stretcher.Ezell, Carden, and Murray dragged away the remains of ceilings and walls trapping Trahan and loaded him on the stretcher. Carden and Murray carried him through the smoke and dark to the bow of the rig and the lifeboats. 110 Outside, the derrick fire roared upward into the night sky, an inferno throwing off searing hea t and clouds of black smoke. The blinding yellow of the flames was the only illumination except for the occasional flashlight. The rig’s alarms were going off, while over the public announcement system Keplinger yelled, â€Å"THIS IS NOT A DRILL! †111 As the 12National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling crew struggled out of the blasted quarters, galley, and offices, in various states of undress, they converged in a chaotic and panicked mass at the lifesaving vessels, putting on life vests. 112 Sandell, the gantry crane operator, had escaped and come around the port side of the deck to the life vessels. â€Å"It was a lot of screaming, just a lot of screaming, a lot of hollering, a lot of scared people, including me, was scared. And trying to get people on boats. It was very unorganized—we had some wounded we was putting in the boat.Had people on the boat yelling, ‘Drop the boat, drop the boat,’ and we still didn ’t have everybody on the boat yet. We was still trying to get people on the boat and trying to calm them down enough to—trying to calm them down enough to get everybody on the boat. And there was people jumping off the side. We was trying to get an accurate count and just couldn’t get an accurate count because people were just jumping off the boat. † 113 * * * * On the Bankston, Captain Alwin J. Landry was on the bridge updating his log when his mate noticed the mud. Landry stepped out and saw â€Å"mud falling on the back half of my boat, kind of like a black rain. He called the Deepwater Horizon bridge to say, â€Å"I’m getting mud on me. † Landry instructed his crew to get inside. The Deepwater Horizon called back and told him to move back 500 meters. 114 A crew member noticed a mud-covered seagull and egret fall to the deck. 115 Shortly after, Landry saw the rig explode. Before the ship could move away, his crew had to detach the long mu d transfer hose connecting them to the rig. 116 As they scrambled to disconnect, the Bankston slowly moved 100 meters back, then 500 meters. As the rig went dark, and secondary explosions rocked the decks, the Bankston turned on its searchlight.Landry could see the Deepwater Horizon crew mustering by the portside life vessels. â€Å"That’s when I seen the first of three or four people jump to the water from the rig. †117 One of those was Gregory Meche, a compliance specialist. After five minutes of the chaos around the lifeboats, and a series of large explosions, he headed down to the lower deck. He jumped into the water. 118 Antonio Gervasio, the Bankston’s relief chief, and two others began launching the ship’s fast rescue craft. 119 Within a minute or two of the explosions, they got the boat lowered into the water, and noticed how calm the Gulf was. 20 â€Å"I saw the first person jump in the water. So I told one of the guys to keep an eye on him. â⠂¬ 121 The rig life jackets were reflective, and as the fast craft made its first sweep round from one side of the burning rig to the other, they hauled Meche and two or three others out of the water. 122 * * * * Back on the rig, Transocean’s Winslow had made his way from the coffee shop to the lifeboats, surviving the second blast’s wave of concussive force, which blew in the Chapter One 13 13 corridor’s walls and ceilings. On the deck, a firestorm of flames roared in the night sky above the derrick. 23 Winslow directed the dazed crew toward the covered life-saving vessels, instructing the first arrivals, â€Å"We need to make sure we get a good head count. † Seeing Captain Kuchta standing at the starboard bridge door, he ran up, and said people should evacuate. Kuc

Chinese Cinderella Essay

The most persuasive and intriguing aspect of an author’s stylistic choices are within the schemes, tropes, diction and syntax. Adeline Yen Mah, author of Chinese Cinderella, paints an authentic picture of her childhood in twentieth-century China; Mah’s childhood, fraught with painful memories and bad luck, accentuates her strength and courage and ultimate triumph over despair. Mah’s stylistic choices and appeal to pathos aggrandizes the overall effectiveness of her book, Chinese Cinderella. A worldwide bestseller that has been translated into eighteen different languages, Chinese Cinderella has a wide, varied audience. The style and effectiveness are heavily dependent on the writer’s diction; Mah carefully chooses words that convey the quiet tragicness of her situation and the cultural aspect. One of the most predominant aspect of the Chinese culture is the names- Mah could write about her grandmother, grandmother and stepmother, but instead chose instead to write about her Ye Ye, Nai Nai and Niang. Choosing to write using the Chinese words creates a compelling, permeating story: â€Å"Besides Father and Niang, we lived without Grandfather Ye Ye, Grandmother Nai Nai and Aunt Baba in a big house in the French concession of Tianjin, a port city on the northeast coast of China† (Mah 5). Removing the names disturbs the authenticity of the piece and upsets the overall meaning; so much of the story is derived from the culture and time period. Culture is a significant element in the writing, but Adeline Yen Mah’s personal experience is the most essential aspect. Mah begins as a young Chinese girl growing up in Shanghai. Mah utilizes syntax to convey the juvenile tone; simply constructed sentences create a childish perspective while maintaining an intelligent insight: â€Å"Next day, there was a grand funeral. Nai Nai’s coffin was draped with white sheets and placed on a hearse pulled by four men. We all dressed in white robes with white headbands for the boys and white ribbons for the girls† (Mah 20). While describing scenes and occasions so simply may seem less interesting, the simple, clean sentences actually paint a clear image in one’s mind. The strong, clean sentences keep the story from seeming too pitiful- Mah does not need verbiage to write well. If excessively descriptive, long sentences are employed the effectiveness of the writing would decrease, â€Å"Later, I saw Big Sister and Niang walking toward the balcony and talking privately just before she and Samuel left for their honeymoon. Was she able to explain it all away? I hoped so. I only wished I could have helped her more† (Mah 89). Straightforward observations create an innocent perspective. Verbiage would hinder her child-like persona- if she writes to sound like the settled, distinguished writer and doctor she is, her novel, in which she is a young Chinese girl, would be considerably less qualified. Through the syntax and diction, Mah appeals to her most compelling appeal, emotion. Her story is tragic- an unloved daughter, Mah suffers cosmic misfortune after cosmic misfortune. Syntax provides the youthful insight, diction provides the cultural aspect, and Mah’s life provides the emotionally evocative story, â€Å"Though a fascinating variation on the classic Cinderella story, with a monstrously hateful villain and a smart, plucky heroine, the book is also rife with simplistic caricatures and shallow melodrama. Yet the daily contempt Yen Mah encountered as a child often touches the heart† (Cruz). Mah eloquently details the tragic events of her past, and as a result, appeals to pathos strongly throughout the entire book. Mah’s stylistic choices and appeal to pathos aggrandizes the overall effectiveness of her book, Chinese Cinderella. The appeal to pathos is the greatest weapon in Mah’s arsenal, and she uses diction and syntax as her bullets. Strong, simple sentences and poignant, culturally related diction â€Å"Verges on soap-opera theatrics, Yen Mah remains true to her sympathetic nature† (Cruz). The elegance and skill of Mah are evident in her writing.

Mercury Athletic Footwear Essay

1. Active Gear is a relatively small athletic and casual footwear company $470.3 million of revenue and $60.4 million of EBIT compared to typical competitors that sold well over a $1.0 billion annually Company executives felt its small size was becoming more of a disadvantage due to consolidation among Chinese contract manufacturers. Specialty athletic footwear that evolved from high performance to athletic fashion wear with a â€Å"classic† appeal. Casual/recreational footwear for walking, hiking, boating, etc.. Affluent urban & suburbanites in the 25-45 age range (i.e. â€Å"Yuppies†). Brands are associated with upwardly mobile lifestyle. Department & specialty stores – no big box retailers. 2. Company strengths: By focusing on a portfolio of classic brands, Active Gear has been able to lengthen its product lifecycle. In turn, this has led to less operating volatility and better supply chain management as well as lower DSI 3. Company weaknesses: By avoiding the chase for the latest fashion trend and avoiding big box retailers, the company has had very low growth 4. Mercury was a subsidiary of a large apparel company As a result of a strategic realignment, the division was considered to be non-core. 2006 revenue and EBITDA were $431.1 million and $51.8 million respectively Under the egis of WCF, Mercury’s performance was mixed. WCF was able to expand sales of footwear, but was never able to establish the hoped for apparel line 5. Products, Customers and Distribution: Men’s and women’s athletic and casual footwear. Most products were priced in the mid-range. More contemporary fashion orientation Typical customers were in the 15-25 age range. Primarily associated with X-games enthusiasts and youth culture Products were sold primarily through a wide range of retail, department, and specialty stores – including discount retailers 6. Company strengths: Established brand and identity within a well-defined niche market that seems to be growing. Strong top-line growth resulting from inroads with major  retailers. Products were less complex; and therefore, cheaper to produce 7. Company weaknesses: Increased sales came as a result of pricing concessions to large retailers. Proliferation of brands led to decreased operating efficiency and a longer DSI. Women’s casual footwear was a disaster Central Question: What Are the Likely Rationales for a Combination of Active Gear and Mercury? How do the acquirer and target fit together? What are the potential sources of value? How would any potential sources of value be realized? Potential sources of value creation: Operating synergies coming from economies of scale with respect to contract manufacturers Perhaps some economies of scope with respect to distribution – extending the distribution network Possible combination of the women’s casual lines Counter arguments to value creation: Poor strategic fit – Mercury’s focus is on a totally different market demographic Likewise, Mercury’s niche maybe significantly more prone to fashion fads Continued growth of extreme sports category may make Mercury’s business vulnerable to the large athletic shoe companies Firm Value & Cash Flows: 1. As a starting point, let’s start with a basic valuation paradigm Note that the sole determinant of value is the generation of cash flow Further the only relevant factors are the amounts, timing and risks of the cash flows FCF is assumed to be the mean of an a random distribution Determination of FCF To begin, the preceding equation led to a value of the entire enterprise, meaning V = D + E Thus, we are interested in what the total business is worth irrespective of who gets the cash or how it’s financed In turn, this means we are interested in the un-levered FCF Un-Levered FCF = EBIT(1-t) + Depr’ – ∆WC – Cap-x Determination of FCF In case Exhibit 6, Liedtke provides a set of projections for each of the operating segments – Thus, Multiplying EBIT by (1-t) yields the first term in the FCF equation Question: Are taxes being overstated? It is true that interest expense creates a tax shield However, the value of the tax shield is acknowledged in the WACC or in a separate calculation when using APV

Lab #8 and Lab #11 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Lab #8 and Lab #11 - Assignment Example Instead of reading the consent forms themselves, which they expressed disinterest in, I read the contents of the forms. One of the participants asked why the informed consent forms needed to be signed, and I explained that it was protocol since it was a complicated study. Next, the participants were given the list of 30 words. They were dealt out upside down, and the participants were advised not to turn them over until they were given a signal. They were given two minutes to study the words, which equates to about four seconds per word. They were informed that they could employ any study method they chose and were informed that, when it came time to recall the words, they could recall them in any order that they chose. Then, as the participants began the study, music was turned on for Conditions 1 and 2. The following were the conditions used: They were then told to stop after two minutes and completed Conditions 1 and 2 without music. After that was completed, participants were given a two-minute distracter task completing addition and subtraction problems on another piece of paper. Then, they were given a clean sheet of paper and asked to write down the words they recalled from the 30-word list. During the recall phase, in Conditions 1 and 3, the music was turned on. Then, they were asked to recall. The same music was played for the experiment and during the recall phase. I, the undersigned, do hereby consent and agree that _________________________________, its employees, or agents have the right to share my answers to the interview process with others beginning on _________________________________ and ending on _________________________________ and to use these in any and all information, now or hereafter known, and exclusively for the purpose of _________________________________. I further consent that my name and identity may be revealed therein or

The Role of Product Feature Similarity and Brand Concept Consistency Dissertation

The Role of Product Feature Similarity and Brand Concept Consistency - Dissertation Example It is assumed that the consumers already understand the usefulness of the core brand and therefore are likely to associate new products with it. The familiarity of the consumers with the firm and the core brand enhances acceptance of the new product. The brand extension may also be used to market a modified product of the core brand. For example, Unilever produces various products. Initially, the company produced a washing liquid, which had brand equity. However, the firm realized that washing powder would be preferred by some consumers. The firm extended fairy from a liquid brand to include powder. The new washing powder gained popularity among consumers mainly because of the existing fairy brand that had brand equity. When firms identify investment opportunities in the market that have not been exploited, they can easily establish through extending their strong brands to ensure that all the needs of consumers are met by one firm (Chandon, 2004). Such strategy prevents other firms from the entry into the same market especially when the extended brand establishes. Companies such as Microsoft have used this strategy whereby they provide all that is needed in the market through brand extension thereby barring potential organizations from entry. There are opportunities for emergent companies to invest but they may not have a large market share for them to be profitable.

How do managers manage resistance to change Research Paper

How do managers manage resistance to change - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that organizations today are faced with severe competition, technological development, economic pressures, social and demographic shifts force organizations to implement change. Change is usually a reaction response to changes in the business environment. Some of the changes include job design, structural changes, and changes in the business operations. Change needs to be welcomed because it brings positive benefits to individuals and organizations. This attracts opportunities for new challenges, personal development. Unfortunately, change is usually accompanied by resistance from employees. It is crucial for managers to anticipate and plan for strategies that will help deal with resistance to change. Change is crucial to the success of any organization. Barriers to change include failure to accept that there is a need for change, fear and insecurity, preference to the current arrangements, inability to perform better under the new situatio n, a breakup of teams and groups, and the difference in people’s ambitions. Other factors include lack of understanding of the need for change and its benefits among employees, a poor introduction of change to employees by management. Change can also be negatively affected by poor employee-management relationship, lack of employee involvement in the process, and lack of management support in terms of providing training to its employees. Resistance to change takes a number of forms, the most obvious form being an active refusal, resistance, and objection to cooperate when a change occurs.

Islamic exam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Islamic exam - Essay Example His arguments were clear and simple, he stated that two major sources of sharia, the Quran and Sunnah did not demand or altogether reject the caliphate, secondly there was no ijma done by the scholars upon the necessity of keeping caliphate, thirdly, caliphate had only brought disasters in the Muslim world and there were no logical arguments to re-establish it. The book also criticized rulers who used the Islamic laws in order to form a political guideline and rules for the ruling authorities. Furthermore, the book stated that the role of Prophet Muhammad was solely as religious spiritual teacher and nothing near to as a political leader. These statements called on for huge debates and unrest between different groups of Islamic world. Al-Raziq has been declared as the father of secularism of the state and not only the society, in Islamic governance. Secularism separates a state from all religious linkages and allows people from different religions to be treated equally by law regardless of religion by the ruling authority or the majority of the country’s population. Al-Raziq never called keeping an Islamic government unlawful; he furthermore declared that Muslims altogether may agree to any form of government they want to keep as long it kept the common interest of the society they are ruling in their mind. This shows that altogether, al-Raziq had a very humanistic approach towards formation of government and supported democracy. Ruhollah Moosavi Khomeini was born in the early 1900’s and is famous for founding the first ever Islamic government called Islamic Republic or Iran. He was a politician and a revolutionary, the brains behind the Iranian Revolution that took place in 1979. After the Shah of Iran was overthrown, Khomeini became the sole ruler of the country and created a constitution solely on the bases of Islam and its

Global Economic Outlook and Challenges Faced by Singapore Essay

Global Economic Outlook and Challenges Faced by Singapore - Essay Example This is endorsed by a survey by the McKinsey Group which finds that amid the uncertainty the prospects for investment banking in the emerging markets remain relatively bright (BÃ ¶hme, Chiarella & Lemerle (2008). Southeast Asia however, has been making solid economic progress since the financial crisis of 1977 but Singapore has been going through a lean pitch and much depends upon the economic activity that take place globally in the near future. The OECD countries accounted for 75% of the world GDP less than 5 decades ago which today accounts for less than 55 percent (Santiso, 2008). The US stock market that accounted for 50% of the world market capitalization now accounts for less than thirty five percent and continues to decline. Emerging markets like Brazil, Mexico, Turkey and South Korea have already become OECD members and Brazil is all set to become the global player. It is growing into a global trader reaching into markets like Middle East, Africa and South East Asia. The subprime crisis of the US can provide new oppurtunities for the Asia-pacific region. The Asia-Pacific investors are playing a key role in supporting the developed countries during the current financial turmoil. Berner (2008) of Morgan Stanley however fears that recession will go global and the industrial economies will be flat in 2009. Most emerging economies have been facing a combination of external shocks and tighter monetary policies. Since the exports to the US would be reduced, it would impact the other economies as they would face decline in employment, which would have pressure on the income, consumers and their lenders. Most predictions estimate that the US economy will take a V-turn and not U-turn. The airline industry too is facing the darkest future as multiple airline liquidations will further cripple the economy that depends on affordable and efficient transportation system.

An evaluation of the importance of communication for Inter Essay

An evaluation of the importance of communication for Inter professional practice for social workers. Specifically looking at Perth & Kinross Council (Scotland) - Essay Example One primary goal of the social worker is to close the opportunity gap between the rich and the poor by way of aiding individuals and families to have more control over their lives, and through the development of hope for the future. To be effective the inter-professional working context of social workers needs to communicate effectively and efficiently. For only by achieving a streamlined team-focused work environment can it be hoped that independence and resilience amongst the rest of the population will be promoted (Perth & Kinross Council, 2006). Without optimal communication structures between social workers, and their contemporaries in other disciplines, can a "person-focused" approach be truly implemented and an integrated social care system achieved. This dissertation aims to explore the perceptions of the importance of inter-professional communication among social workers in the Perth & Perth & Kinross Council (Scotland) district. Firstly, a review of literature supporting effective communication in the social care system will be presented. Secondly, the rational for this dissertation and the research question will be delivered. Next, the methodology for data collection and analysis to answer the resear ch question will be outlined. Finally, ethical considerations for this study will be detailed. A conclusion shall summarise the main points of the paper and demonstrate the importance of inter-professional communication for social workers. To achieve the goal of the comprehensive and effective use of the entire social service workforce, and to build capacity, develop confidence and trust at all levels of the social care system, it is necessary that dramatic shifts in the balance of power and control take place (Perth & Kinross Council Council, 2006). It is clear that inter-professional communication plays a significant role in the breaking down power imbalances and at establishing

History of Database Essay Example for Free

History of Database Essay Storing data and files is an important aspect of business for various industries of the world. The storage of data in computers or database system is proven to be cost effective. Large or small database needs a system which will control the processes in the databases. Such applications are called database management systems (DBMS). From the time it was designed, the need for a good DBMS has increased because of the escalating number of data stored in the database. There are many available DBMS that private corporations use today. Indeed, database management systems have evolved due to the demand for the services that these systems provide. Database Management System A database management system is a collection of programs which enables the user or a network of users to mange files and data inside the database. The management includes storing, deleting, modifying, and extracting information from the database. It manages the request of the user and other programs installed in the computer or in the network. The DBMS ensures the integrity and reliability of the data. Some DBMS also provide security to the database (Tatum, 2003). There are many different forms of database management systems available in the market today because of the different private and public organizations or corporations which require different kinds of DBMS. However, there are four important elements that every DBMS have. These are the modeling language, data structures, data query language and mechanism that allows transactions (Tatum, 2003). The modeling language is the element that pertains to the approach used by the DBMS to communicate with the database. There are several approaches available today including hierarchical, relational, network and object-oriented (Christiansen, 2005). The hierarchical model makes use of pointers to navigate between stored data which is stored hierarchically in a downward tree. The structure is very inflexible in changing data and access requirements. The data is accessed by navigating from the root data to the data on the lower part of the hierarchy. In addition, the user should know the structure of the system before he or she can make an inquiry (Hsior, n. d. ). The network model is like the hierarchical model. It uses pointers to navigate through the data but it does not use a downward tree structure. It has limited flexibility in changing data and accessing requirements. Access to the data is accomplished by navigating through the structure and issuing specific statements to find specific data types in relation to the starting point of the structure (Hsior, n. d. ). In relational model, the data is stored in the two-dimensional tables. The data in the relational method is manipulated based on the relational theory of mathematics. The data types in this model are assigned with a symbolic primary key or foreign key construction. The referential integrity of the model is supported by the relational theory of mathematics. This model is very flexible to the data changes and access requirements. And the access to data types is based on relational algebra and relational calculus statements (Hsior, n. d. ). And lastly, the object-oriented model stores data as objects. This model is more direct than its predecessors since the design is very close to the real world model. The object-oriented model allows an easier way to maintain the database. The identification of objects is assigned by the system which protects the consistency of the data; while in the relational systems, it is assigned by the user. The database does not only store data but a whole application as well. Moreover, it can be executed inside the database. The concept of inheritance in this model makes code easily reusable. Furthermore, the object-oriented model is more practical and more economical (Hsior, n. d. ). The data structures are the elements that a DBMS manages inside the database. Different databases require different data structures which different DBMS manage. Data structures include individual records, files, fields and objects such as media files. DBMS need to define data structures to ensure the integrity of the data while it is being accessed. The data query language is the element which takes care of the security of the database. It monitors login data, assigns access rights and privileges, and defines the criteria for the add data function in the data base (Tatum, 2003). History The origin of database can be traced back to libraries, governments and other institutions that require storage of data. The DBMS was designed to ensure the integrity, security and accessibility of data. The design of the DBMS constantly evolves through time. It aims to create a design of which has better reliability and performance (Mann, 2003). In the 1800, Jose Marie Jacquard had created a machine, Jacquard Loom, which produced fabric from stored design from a punch card. The data of the design is stored in punch cards where holes represent the details in the design. In this way, the Jacquard Loom automatically designs the loom depending on the punch card in use (Tatum, 2003). Similar technology was used in the 1890 as Herman Hollerith created a mechanism that recorded information in a punch card which was coded numerically. The idea is that the data can punch in specific locations in the card, and then it can be counted and sorted automatically. This design was used by the US government to perform the census. Hollerith’s company solely produces the machine that records the data in the punch card and another machine that tabulates and sorts the cards. This company is renamed to IBM. The company prospered as it was able to produce machines that can record data for business and government institutions during 1910 towards 1960. The systems have records of every household and other data needed for the analysis of the society (Tatum, 2003). By 1955, many business and government institutions have floors dedicated for the storage of punched cards and floors for the machines. The machines work with punch-board which control accumulator registers that could reproduce punched cards or put data on paper. Some very large companies accumulate tons of data everyday that costs millions on storage. Thus, the need for a new technology has become very imminent (Tatum, 2003). In the 1960s, private organizations and corporations needed computers that have better storage capabilities and computers are proven to be cost effective against ordinary punch cards. In line with this, database administrators needed database management systems to cope with the increasing data storage capacity of computers and the increasing number of data being stored. The hierarchical and network model are the two main data models developed which were used in database management systems during the earlier years. They made use of pointers which was used to navigate through records. In these models, there were difficulties in adding another field in the higher level since it will require rewriting the scheme for access in the lower level data. In this system, the emphasis of the model was placed on the type of data to be processed and not the over all structure of the system. In addition, the user who will need access to the data should know the structure of the database before he can make a query for information (Vaughn, 2003). In the early 1970s, the Edgar F. Codd proposed a relational approach in manipulating data in the database. He published an article entitled A relational model of data for large shared data banks which became the foundation in the development of the relational database. The article showed a theory of how to store data in a rectangular or in two-dimensional tables and then use the theory of mathematical sets to operate on it. The relational databases represent the first implementation of the real database management system. Since then, the relation model had been the most popular or standard approach for database management systems (Vaughn, 2003). In the mid-70s, the theory of Codd on relational databases was put into research projects by several competing camps. During this time, the term Relational Database Management System or the RDBMS was coined. During these times, there are two main prototypes based on the relational were developed. These are the System R developed by the IBM and Ingres developed by the University of California at Berkeley. These two prototypes led to different kinds of DBMS. The two lines of DBMS created by the two prototypes used different query languages. IBM’s System R uses the Structured Query Language (SQL) and the UCB’s Ingres uses QUEL short for query language. Also in mid-1970s, Peter P. Chen proposed the Entity-Relationship Model for the database design which gave a new insight in the conceptual models of a database management system. This model gives the designer of the database management system a way to concentrate more on the use of data instead of its logical structure like other method does (Vaughn, 2003). In the early 1980s, the commercialization of the Relational Database Management System began to intensify due to the increasing demand of databases in corporations around the world. The higher demand was caused by the emerging business in the United States and other countries around the world. Another reason is that organizations and corporations had increasing number of data needed to be stored. Businesses rely on computers for their data storage thus a better database management system is needed to manage large databases that these businesses have. At the same time, many companies made some products which give individual users to maintain a small database in their own computer (Vaughn, 2003). In the rest of the 1980s, SQL had become the standard query language for many databases which was caused by the emergence of the local area network. The Oracle Corporation made the first commercial relational database. Moreover, the network and hierarchical models faded to the background. However, there are still others that use the network and hierarchical models (Vaughn, 2003). It was during the early 1990s when the industry of databases had a shakeout and there are only a few companies that survived for offering better products. The most important development on the computer industry was on application builders and programming languages. During these times, the prototype of the object-oriented database management system was introduced. The object-oriented DBMS is conceptualized to handle big and complex data that relational database management systems had a hard time to handle (Vaughn, 2003). In the mid-1990s, the influx of internet use revived the need for database industry. This demand came from internet servers in order to manipulate the large amounts of data which must be made accessible to internet users. Better security and reliability is also needed to protect the client-users and the information itself from corruption and tamper. As such, only a good database management system can provide this. In addition, the database industry during these times has reached the desktop computers in the users’ own homes. This provides desktop computer users to manage their own small database or access the large databases on the internet (Vaughn, 2003). In the late 1990s, the industry prospered in terms of internet sales and database tools. The e-commerce industry boomed since business transactions have been done online. The Online Transaction Processing and the Online Analytical Processing emerged (Vaughn, 2003). However, in the early 21st century, there has been a decline in the internet industry. Nonetheless, the database industry is still growing because the demand for a larger database and better DBMS is steadily growing. There are other interactive applications that emerged during these times. Three companies have dominated the database industry including Microsoft, Oracle and IBM (Vaughn, 2003). Nowadays, huge systems require a good way to manage and analyze data. These databases’ storage capacity for the data now reaches the terrabyte level. Such databases are science databases which hold genome projects, national security, and space exploration data. Shopping online is also one of the common practices today. Millions of buyers participate on this application, thus requiring a larger database and good handling abilities. There are researches today that is said to surpass the capabilities of the SQL. This development will ensure another significant growth in the database industry (Vaughn, 2003). Future Trends Mobile database is now emerging in various ways. This technology will secure a more remote access to database. Additionally, more and more people will access a single database at a time. As such, proper management is needed to ensure the continuous service and to prevent a system crush (Vaughn, 2003). Object-oriented database management system is predicted to dominate the database market as well as other computer markets. The emergence of the use of this model threatens to wipe other database models (Vaughn, 2003). As time goes by, there are certain issues that have risen alongside the creation of larger databases. Ethical issue is one of them; the larger the database is, the harder that people can efficiently manage it. Consequently, it is easier for perpetrators to subtly penetrate a system without being known by the administrators. In addition, some databases use automatic analyzing application which is sometimes unethical to use (Vaughn, 2003). Evidently, the database evolved from simple punched cards to huge mainframes. The advances in database technology have propelled the growing need for large data storage and management tools to access and analyze it. The database management system evolved as billions of information are generated by large business and government institutions everyday. The demand still grows as the internet community is still continuously growing. The future of database industry is very clear – it will continue to prosper and advance as the world continuously develops. References Christiansen, S. (2005). Database Management System. Retrieved April 10, 2009, from http://searchsqlserver. techtarget. com/sDefinition/0,,sid87_gci213669,00. html Hsior, J. (n. d. ). Evolution of Database Systems. Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://w3. ocit. edu. tw/ben/foxpro6/article/english/ch01/page04. htm Mann, M. (2006). History and Comparison of Relational Database Management Systems. TechnoCircle HVB Information Services. Retrieved April 11, 2009, from http://www. guug. de/lokal/muenchen/2007-05-14/rdbmsc. pdf Tatum, M. (2003). What is DBMS? Retrieved April 10, 2009, from http://www. wisegeek. com/what-is-dbms. htm Vaughn, J. (2003). A short Database History. Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://math. hws. edu/vaughn/cpsc/343/2003/history. html

Marketing Plan For Persil Cleaner Planet Plan Marketing Essay

Marketing Plan For Persil Cleaner Planet Plan Marketing Essay With the recent new initiative of the Persil Cleaner Planet Plan being foremost in the companies mind http://www.persil.com/CleanerPlanet.aspx the main objectives of the plan are to be the focal point of this marketing plan. The development of a new product which is environmentally friendly, kind on skin, yet tough on stains is going to enable the achievement of these objectives. With the continuous introduction of re-usable nappy schemes throughout the world it can be seen that there is a potential market for a product that can meet the needs of consumers. In order to reduce the carbon footprint through the use of re-usable nappies a product has to be introduced that can wash at low temperatures. Previous research has shown that in order to benefit from the use of re-usable nappies compared to disposable ones certain factors have to be taken into account when washing e.g. low temperature, full load etc. The main purpose of this new product shall be the washing of re-usable nappies and clothes at as lower temperate as possible. To ensure success in achieving the objectives specific marketing strategies will be used in the marketing plan process these are segmentation, targeting and the marketing mix, all of which will establish the products potential. Cleaner Planet Plan Tactics Segmentation To establish the target market for the new product the use of demographic segmentation will be adopted. This will enable the company to reach specific consumers and help to understand their needs. A variable of demographic segmentation to consider is Generation X as they could prove to be a potential target market for the product, although getting the message across to them will be difficult and will need to be done via word of mouth. Targeting The product is to be mainly aimed at new parents; the recent baby boom will create significant opportunities, whilst also targeting existing consumers who care about the environment and the affect of global warming. With the initial use of penetration pricing the new product will be accessible to those consumers who wish to change from their current brand to a more environmentally friendly one and will attract parents keen on the idea of using re-usable nappies but concerned about the initial outlay, as this can often be quite expensive. Marketing mix 4Ps The four strategies of the marketing mix will be used to reach the companies objectives. Product In using the concept of benefit building figure 1(LearnMarketing.net, 2009) as devised by Philip Kotler the company can begin to get an overall picture of the product and its benefits. Figure 1 http://www.learnmarketing.net/totalproduct1.jpg The new product is to be named Persil Nature, an environmentally friendly, non-biological, hypo-allergenic washing powder with added Aloe Vera. It is to be made from plant and mineral based ingredients that are biodegradable. Persil Natures core function is to enable the washing of re-usable nappies and clothes at a temperature of 15c or better still cold water. It will be packaged in a biodegradable cardboard box with a pull out pouring spout. Preference is to be given to cardboard as oppose to plastic as the opportunities for recycling from home are far greater. It will be available in pack sizes of 850g, 2.38kg and 4.25kg. The labelling will have the typical Persil branding and will display a top tips section with advice on the best ways of washing, drying etc. to further promote the environmental issues. There will also be information to direct consumers to the companys Cleaner Planet Plan website. It shall come with a money back guarantee if consumers are not entirely satisfied with the product. Price The penetration pricing strategy will be used to encourage consumers to use the product. An introductory price will be used in the first few weeks of the launching of the new product. This initial price shall be in line with other biological products in the companies range. The price will then be increased in line with other similar products on the market, with special attention been paid to the companies close competitors. Table 1 below shows the introductory and increased prices for each pack size: Table 1 Pack size Introductory price Increased price 850g  £3.49  £4.49 2.38kg  £6.99  £7.99 4.25kg  £10.99  £11.99 The price will constantly be reviewed in order to achieve the maximum potential of the product and strategies put in place where relevant. Promotion A wide variety of marketing campaigns will be undertaken to reach the target market. The use of TV, radio and the web will help to promote the product to a wider audience. Advertisements will be placed in newspapers and magazines and promotional leaflets will also be used. The company will work in partnership with local councils, hospitals; through midwives and nurseries to promote re-usable nappy schemes and also the new product. Partnership will also take place with re-usable nappy companies, with money-off coupons being placed on nappy products and vice versa. Place The product will need to be in the right place at the right time. This process will need to be carefully planned as bad timing can have a significant impact on whether a new product succeeds or fails in the world of fast moving consumer goods. Distribution will be made through retailers as there is a strong market presence already there and they are able to have a more personal relationship with consumers.