Review – CSB Updated Status of 5 Investigation Recommendations – 6-18-25

Yesterday the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) updated their Recent Recommendation Status Updates page, closing five recommendations with acceptable alternative actions. These actions left 133 of 1019 recommendations open. The CSB took these actions on June 18^th, 2025.

The five recommendations recently addressed are:

Macondo Blowout and Explosion - 2010-10-I-OS-3 - American Petroleum Institute (API),

Macondo Blowout and Explosion - 2010-10-I-OS-1 - Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE),

Macondo Blowout and Explosion - 2010-10-I-OS-2 - BSEE,

Macondo Blowout and Explosion - 2010-10-I-OS-11- Department of the Interior (DOI), and

Macondo Blowout and Explosion - 2010-10-I-OS-12 - DOI

Commentary

In several instances, while noting that the actions taken “would not have prevented the Macondo incident”, the Board concluded that, “DOI-BSEE has done a tremendous amount of work toward addressing the intent of R11. DOI-BSEE implemented several initiatives following the Macondo incident, several of  which address a majority of the objectives envisioned by the Board and provide an equivalent level of safety.”

This is an example of why it is so important to have these investigations being done by a non-regulatory body. They have more flexibility to judge the adequacy (or inadequacy) of actions without regard to the letter of the recommendations made or existing regulatory or statutory requirements. Instead, they can look at the reality of the situation to determine if an adequate (and honest) effort has been taken to improve the safety of chemical operations.

 

For more details about the actions taken and the CSB’s actions, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/csb-updated-status-of-5-investigation - subscription required.