Drowning in Oil: BP & the Reckless Pursuit of Profit

by Loren C. Steffy

"A carefully and powerfully written story."
Financial Times "When an author uses a loaded word like 'reckless' in a book's title, the burden of proof is high. . . . Steffy meets the burden by demonstrating that corporate behemoth BP (formerly British Petroleum) could have prevented the 11 deaths on April 20, 2010, aboard the Deepwater Horizon. . . . The deaths and the gigantic oil spill following the sinking of Deepwater Horizon will surely become a landmark of corporate ineptness and greed for the remainder of human history, thanks in part to Steffy's remarkable account."
San Antonio Express-News "Steffy has produced a fascinating, gripping, revealing account. . . . The book details events aboard the Deepwater Horizon in April of 2010 to start, but it digs deeper into what is revealed as a culture of cost-cutting boiling over within BP. Steffy documents years of incidents and poor management decisions, detailing the rise of key characters like John Browne and Tony Hayward alongside riveting outlines of horrifying events in Texas City and at other BP locations. . . . The book reads like fiction at times, with the author's heavily-detailed accounts of explosions and conversations creating vivid, nearly fantastical images. The tragic history of BP is all-too-real, though, as the lost lives and environmental damage certainly attest to.. . . Steffy is a thorough, straightforward author. His concerns largely lie with the loss of life and the general culture of cost-cutting of BP, painting an apt and terrifying picture of rampant, steady, costly neglect."
Seattle Post Intelligencer "Steffy provides valuable insight and crucial corporate context in explaining how so much oil ended up in the Gulf of Mexico."
BusinessWeek "[Steffy's] investigations reveal a corporate culture of cost-cutting initiatives that put profits ahead of workers' lives and the environment, with repeated safety violations and an abysmal accident history. . . . Steffy details how, in the context of BP's record, the disaster was just part of a pattern of poor decision making in the relentless pursuit by BP to become the largest and most profitable oil company in the world."
Booklist About the Book As night settled on April 20, 2010, a series of explosions rocked Deepwater Horizon, the immense semisubmersible drilling platform leased by British Petroleum, located 40 miles off the Louisiana coast. The ensuing inferno claimed 11 lives, and it would rage uncontained for two days, until its wreckage sank to a final resting place nearly a mile beneath the waves. On the ocean floor, the unit's wellhead erupted. Over the next ten weeks, as repeated attempts to cap the geyser failed, an estimated 200 million gallons of oil―the equivalent of 20 Exxon Valdez spills―spewed into the Gulf of Mexico, eventually lapping up on beaches as far away as Florida. Drowning in Oil , by award-winning Houston Chronicle business reporter and columnist Loren Steffy―considered by many to be the writer with the best access to the story―is an unprecedented and gripping narrative of this catastrophe and how BP's winner-take-all business culture made it all but inevitable. Through never-before-published interviews with BP executives and employees, environmental experts, and oil industry insiders, Steffy takes us behind the scenes of 100 years of BP corporate history. Beginning with the conglomerate's early gambits in the Middle East to its recent ascent among energy titans, Steff unearths the roots of the Gulf oil spill in the unwritten bargain between oil producers and consumers, whose insatiable appetites drive the search for new supplies faster, farther, and deeper. Beyond this, the Deepwater Horizon disaster took place after a history of cost cutting in pursuit of profits, particularly under the guidance of its two most recent ex-CEOs, John Browne and Anthony Hayward. Exhaustively researched and documented, Drowning in Oil is the first in-depth examination of how a lack of corporate responsibility and government oversight led to the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. It is an objective, no-punches-pulled account of the energy its environmental impact and the intense competition among stakeholders in today's oil markets. This book puts all the pieces together, offering a definitive account of BP's pursuit of outsized profits as the industrial world awakens to the grim realities of Peak Oil. " They fumbled around the darkened room and found an instruction manual. By flashlight, they read the starting procedures. They were doing everything right. After five or six futile tries, they gave up and headed back toward the bridge. Back on the bridge, alarms were shrieking and the captain knew they were running out of time. The subsea engineer had hit the emergency disconnect for the well, and although the control panel showed the rig should be free, it wasn't. The hydraulics were dead. Fire continued to shoot from the top of the derrick. The rig had no power, and withou...

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, History, Environment

304 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 2010

About the author

Loren Steffy is a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly, an executive producer for Rational Middle Media and a managing director for 30 Point Strategies, where he heads the 30 Point Press publishing imprint. He is the author of five nonfiction books: Deconstructed: An Insider’s View of Illegal Immigration and the Building Trades (with Stan Marek), The Last Trial of T. Boone Pickens (with Chrysta Castañeda), George P. Mitchell: Fracking, Sustainability, and an Unorthodox Quest to Save the Planet, The Man Who Thought Like a Ship, and Drowning in Oil: BP and the Reckless Pursuit of of Profit. His first novel, The Big Empty, was published in May 2021.

Steffy is the former business columnist for the Houston Chronicle and previously was the Dallas (and Houston) bureau chief and a senior writer for Bloomberg News. His award-winning writing has been published in newspapers and other publications worldwide.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Texas A&M University and lives in Wimberley, Texas, with his wife, three dogs and an ungrateful cat.

Reviews

[Ronan · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book looked at BP'S many failings I feel it left Transocean the drilling contractor off the hook. As somebody who works on a drilling rig I have some very serious questions about the failure of numerous safety systems on transoceans rig. The author has chose to focus almost soley on BP and gloss over the failings of other parties. Transocean has a similar goal/ budget driven operational practise as BP. While the fact that the well kicked back may well be BP's cut cost design's fault the fact they lost control of the well and had a blow out is down to Transoceans equipment failure and personnel operating it.
The author is scathing of the Baker report into the texas refinery fire for being to narrow focused and not looking at the wider picture. I would say he is guilty of similar with this book.

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

Americans blaming foreigners for all their misfortunes - sad, but typical. This book recounts the failures of BP in the years leading up to the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. The author, an apparent Houston Energy/Oil expert Loren Steffy, claims that their focus on cost-cutting, hazy management structure and improper safety procedures were the main reason for the high number of fatalities in BP facilities in from 2004 to 2010.
Personally, I dont buy this kind of American tunnel-vision writing. Everything in the book points to BP being the bad guy, while in many cases BP was not alone, nor the main culprit. No oil company in the Gulf of Mexico encountered proper governmental oversight up to 2010, and every single company worked by their own rules. Transocean was just as guilty of the DH catastrophe as BP, maybe even more as it was their BOP that was modified, not maintained and in the end failed to operate. Accidents at the Texas City refinery were all blamed on BP, while BP inherited a decrepit refinery from Aramco - LS simply puts all the blame on BP, while a large part of the blame should also fall on Aramco. Overall, I do see the large number of accidents that occurred in BP facilities, pipelines and rigs, but without proper comparison data from competitors, I dont believe BP is structurally different. for example: couldnt LS look at the dismal Shell safety records in Nigeria?
LS hails the American way of working (no Americans were to blame, they were only victim), the bad guys were from Britain, from abroad. This American shortsightedness is very familiar and doesnt irritate - it however degrades the credibility of the book to that of a typical oil executive..

[Mandy Moody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drowning in Oil was incredibly interesting and well written. I found it very informative without ever being dry. Steffy's knowledge and background in the industry made him the perfect person to write this book. His experience as a journalist paid off with absolutely stellar descriptions. I've never read a non-fiction that made you feel as if you were in the middle of the action the way this one did.
I also felt like the writing remained non-judgmental, in spite of being clear about who was to blame for the many accidents BP has suffered over the years. An impressive feat.
I picked this up because I wanted to hear more about the Deepwater Horizon fiasco, but I ended up learning quite a bit about the oil industry, the government agencies that 'control' it, and especially about BP. Steffy made corporate history riveting.

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deepwater Horizon was an offshore drilling rig owned by Transocean and operated by British Petroleum (BP). Deepwater Horizon was built in 2001 in South Korea, before being transported to the Gulf of Mexico to begin operations. The rig was capable of operating in waters 8,000 feet deep, with a maximum drilling depth of 30,000 feet. The rig was operating in the Macondo Prospect area, drilling an exploratory well. On April 20, 2010, an explosion devastated the oil rig and caused a massive oil spill. The spill was finally capped on July 15, 2010. The resulting spill contaminated 4o miles of coastal pollution, the effects of which can still be seen today. The explosion immediately killed ten workers on the rig, and an eleventh died during the fire that followed.

The author of this book made a bold claim that BP et al were reckless, however the proof offered in this book and the subsequent resolutions of legal cases regarding this incident show that that word absolutely applied to these corporate types. Both Transocean and BP were financially liable for violations of the United States Clean Water Act. The actions of those in the company in the aftermath of this event were deplorable, really. I think the author did a good job of weighing the evidence and communicating the facts to the readers. This was a really informative book.

[Amarjeet Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drowning In Oil analyzes and recounts the lead-up to the 2010 catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill which ripped through the fragile Gulf of Mexico aquamarine ecosystem and claimed 11 lives. One only need look at then BP CEO Anthony Hayward's cringing to the media 'I'd like my life back' to understand the laissez faire form of leadership he brought to his office. Attitudes are caught and not taught-this proved Hayward's undoing. In his race to turn a profit he-and many others like him-cut corners and ignored expert warnings as to the impending crisis looming over them. Ultimately, when Hayward's slack was called out more dirty secrets emerged from hidden closets.

Steffy is an industry expert but also a proficient writer who avoids all the burdensome jargon associated with oil spills and environmental disasters. The book reads as a damning summary of Hayward's career as well as BP's enforced lack of oversight. Although there are parts of the book which might be considered too probing (Hayward's affair with homosexual prostitutes) it nonetheless delivers a colossal punch to all leaders irrespective of their field. Do not under any circumstances assume that you will get your life back when you are caught slumbering atop a crisis.

[Monzenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Low five. I keep on thinking of reasons to drop this to four stars but honestly I can't. The topic is quite interesting, and there are lots of books I can pair with this (Evolution of a Corporate Idealist from the BP side, The Frackers from the general oil side). The narrative is brisk and clear, there are both general and specific details mentioned. Plus a local paper representative wrote the book, which is evident in the interviews and discussions the author chose to have. A good story of the biggest operational failure of BP.

[Douglas Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It is a well researched analysis of poor corporate governance. Short term profit at the expense of good corporate governance is disastrous. I have been in plenty of management meetings where this very issue has been debated. This book has certainly reinforced my need to always ask why we do things, particularly if profits are prioritised over safety.

[Alberto Tebaldi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shocking description of how such big corporations are run.

[RoadVersion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Download my book review in pdf format from my Files Anywhere account using this link:

https://personal.FilesAnywhere.com/fs...

[Douglas Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, felt like each chapter ended with a little less detail than I wanted.

[Patrick Kozlowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book I read was Drowning in Oil by Loren C. Steffy. This is a nonfiction book that not only details the Deepwater Horizon accident (known as the Gulf Oil Spill), but also the events leading up to it. It goes over the very beginning of the company, and details previous accidents that were BP’s fault, such as the Texas City Refinery explosion in 2005. However its main focus is on the Deepwater Horizon, and the causes of the disaster. This was an informative book, although it could be dry at times; I enjoyed reading it.
As this was a nonfiction book, the characters were real people affected by this disaster. When the author would name a person, for example a rig worker, she would state their appearance along with their personality if possible. If there was a conversation between two people it would not appear in quotations like in fiction books, or some nonfiction books. The author would state what their conversations were about (or probably about) without quotations.
The plot briefly began with the initial part of the disaster, with the Deepwater Horizon exploding in the Gulf of Mexico. It then details the origins of BP, starting from its founding and eventually ending with the aftermath of the disaster in 2011. It moves at a perfect pace when talking about the history of the company. It slows down when it starts talking about former CEO’s like John Browne, and Tony Hayward. The book also goes slow and goes in detail about two disasters, the Texas City Refinery explosion in 2005, and the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010. Since these two disasters caused major repercussions for BP, it makes sense that it goes in details for the Texas City explosion and the Deepwater Horizon accident (since the book is about it).
The author wrote in a summary perspective for most of the parts of the book. When the book would detail a disaster the author wrote almost from a third-person point of view for the people involved. In one part of the book the author was describing the different parts of a drilling rig (such as the blowout preventer), and how it works. The author went into detail with it, but not too much where it would get confusing.
From the beginning of this book it is clear that it is not pro-BP. The author was trying to determine the cause of the Deepwater Horizon accident. It was found to be a common cost cutting measure that has caused not only the Gulf Oil Spill, but accidents to several other companies. I would recommend this book to people who like reading non-fiction books about disasters.

[Michael O'Loughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loren Steffy’s Drowning in Oil, published by McGraw Hill is a historical look at the rise of BP and the other major oil companies and their endless pursuit of profits. It takes an objective look at the BP culture first created by John Browne and then perpetuated by Anthony Hayward, and how this culture of profit-driven decision making led to such an unsafe work environment that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was bound to happen. It also takes a look at the lack of proper oversight on the part of the various US government agencies that were supposed to keep the public, the employees and the environment safe.

Read teh rest of my review at: http://www.betterlivingshow.org/blog....

[John Branney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a very good read and a good overview of the culture of BP. Having spent 34 years on the global oil services industry I found a few technical errors in the reading that lowered my confidence in the rest of the book. For example, the author completely mutilated page 159, all beginning with the statement that oil was heavier than water. Unfortunately that is a critical mistake when discussing the technical nature of the blowout. The author also mutilated topics on casing and perforating. Still a good read and I am assuming he was more accurate on the non technical side of the book. One and a half thumb up.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author shows the reader the systematic failures of BP in terms of safety, and how the company culture contributed to numerous disasters and deaths, not just the most recent oil spill. I do wish that the author had included a diagram that shows where all the different parts of the rig are, but readers can also do that on their own. I hope the disconnect between corporate actions and government regulation is corrected.

[Jean Shoup · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting account of what happened with the Deep Water Horizon explosion in the Gulf and BP as a company and their culture. In many ways the book helps the reader understand a little more clearly how intertwined Big Oil is in the government both federal and state and in the interdependence we all share as citizens.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative. And from my close experience of BP over the last 7 years I'm pretty sure not much has changed, even in the last few years. But then there are a lot of narrow minded people in the industry making important decisions. It will be someone else's turn next. The U.S. needs to look at the UK/ European approach to HSE and learn from that. But it costs too much money....

[Diane C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a compelling blow by blow description of the people and events in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, was well as a use friendly education of general info regarding underwater oil drilling and the companies who do it, this is a great book!

[G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book shows why my job stays busy and is important. Well-written and reported, I expect it will be an award winner (Pulitzer?)

[Asuka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, but oddly pro-ExxonMobil.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives an interesting account of the development of BP.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good look at how culture tangibly influences a company.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was a good book