Editorial: Nurturing lessons learned – Stakeholders must continue collaborative relationship

From the president

Following a devastating forest fire, new growth rises from the charred remains. This is the cycle in nature. In human endeavors, we too must try to rebound from disasters of our own making. In this case, new growth for our industry will come only from nurturing the lessons learned from Macondo.

Among those lessons is what can be accomplished when everyone is committed to a better result. In the case of Macondo, while the tragedy and the loss of life will never be forgotten, we must remember the near-heroic efforts of all those who came together to contain the rupturing well, capture the flow of oil and clean up the affected coast. This was achieved in the first months after the incident when experts from the energy industry were joined by experts from academia, government and regulators, NGOs and environmental groups.

More than 18 months after this tragic event, the opportunity exists for all stakeholders to continue to grow that relationship into a collaborative enterprise in a non-crisis situation. Working together, we can build a better industry with greater responsibility.

For IADC, one sign of that continuing relationship is how stakeholders came together in May this year in a focused effort to address the issues of environmentally improved drilling. Experts from a wide range of backgrounds – Rice University, the Environmental Defense Fund Cuba Program, the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Florida International University, the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy, the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, the World Ocean Council, Deep Tek and the Trinidad & Tobago Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs – all participated with IADC to establish a dialogue for improvements that will lead us into a new world of deepwater drilling.

Let’s put the lessons of Macondo in our daily operating manual.