Codes of practice crucial to monitoring oil drilling

Finally, the BP oil leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico was plugged after nearly four months of anxiety.

The heat of the moment has now dissipated which means level-headed review of what actually happened and what next, can now take place.

The report by the official investigating commission when published will of course come up with details of ‘how and why’ of the whole episode.

The scars of the spill on the US coastline will definitely linger on for years, but economic life must resume and carry on.

Out of any major catastrophe arises an opportunity to revolutionise methods of performing activities so as to ensure that never again do such catastrophes recur.

There is value in lessons learnt from any disaster.

I was a director of logistics in the Exxon affiliate in Kenya in 1989 when the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill off the Alaskan coastline revolutionised the entire industry way of managing safety and environment.

It involved a new corporate mental re-alignment of ways employees and contractors handled their day-to-day oil operations.

It also involved new policies, systems, procedures and technologies.

This mental re-orientation resulting from Exxon Valdez experience has persisted in me to this day.

The BP Gulf Of Mexico, like Exxon Valdez will definitely change how oil exploration and production are conducted all over the world.

Immediately the incident happened, the oil industry went hyper in seeking new solutions in technologies and procedures in oil and gas exploration.

Governments and regulatory agencies across the world started reviewing the adequacy of their regulatory provisions.

The UK oil industry and related service providers have already in response to the Gulf of Mexico incident initiated an engineering study to develop new designs and concepts for capping wells that have run amok, including better methods for containment of spilled oil.

Response agencies