We’re All in the Oil Industry

Pierre Gadonneix is the honorary president of Électricité de France and president of the World Energy Council.

Two months ago, the accident on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico mobilized the media worldwide. It reminds us, in one way, of our dependence on hydrocarbons and, in another way, that the world of energy is a world of interdependencies, where all local events have global implications.

Let’s not delude ourselves. To make up for the energy challenges that we have before us—guaranteeing energy security, preserving the environment and reducing energy poverty—we will need all forms of energy, including fossil fuels. It is therefore vital that we make sure that all forms of energy will be available and accepted by the masses. This last point is crucial. Let’s learn from the past.

The BP accident has this in common with Chernobyl, which, thirty years ago, forced the actors in the world’s energy sector to seriously reconsider the safety requirements of their operations. Certainly, the priority is to quickly fix the damage and prevent the same type of accident from occurring again, notably by a moratorium on deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, while we wait for satisfying answers to legitimate questions. Nevertheless, these two measures will not suffice for creating long-term standards for oil platforms worldwide, nor will they suffice for assuring the people of the safety of any other energy facilities.

If this spill is not the most important one the world has ever known, it is, at least, the one which will cause the heaviest long-term impact on the petroleum industry, forcing actors to collectively redefine the design, practice and control of operations and facility safety.

The BP accident is also comparable to Chernobyl in how it has created solidarity among those in the industry. Safety has become an issue and a common good that they must learn to share; a single mishap for one can create a moratorium for all.

After the trauma of 1986, the nuclear industry came together, in an act of solidarity, to safeguard themselves against risks. They established principles and best practices which could inspire the oil industry: firstly, redundancy of independent safety systems. On the BP platform, there were plenty of security systems, but they were certainly not independent enough. In nuclear power plants, there is doubling, even quadrupling of independent security systems. Another issue: an evaluation of the systems by a third party, preferably a peer. Peer reviews allow objective evaluation by competent entities and limit the risk of a conflict of interest, since peers should have no a priori interest in giving an easy review. Finally, harmonization of international safety standards: the aviation industry is a great example. This measure must be just as detailed as that of the nuclear industry.

Safety cannot be a two-tiered system. It must be neither discriminate nor subject to the demands of industry members. It is an inherent cost. In France, the growing outcry for safety has greatly augmented the cost of nuclear power plants, but refusing to pay that price today would only be putting off the problem and leaving a terrible debt for future generations. They will have to fix our damages, pay for oppressively large infrastructures in order to guarantee the safety of aging installations, and repay our financial debt — among the other debts already threatening the quality of their future lives.

Ambitious and just public policy must obtain and give the “real cost” of energy — one that accounts for all costs, including those of safety and CO2 emissions — in order to stimulate innovation and prepare for the transition to an economy free of carbon emissions. Finally, this accident could be a hearty wake-up call to the world of energy, if, that is, it knows to learn from all this.

In my eyes, it is urgent that we gain true capacity of international coordination and international harmonization of the safety criteria for all forms of energy, with the objective of transparently sharing them and thus stop making this a competition.

The World Energy Council, over which I preside, will open the dialogue among all actors (industrial, governmental, and experts) and will propose some starting points for working on concrete solutions, at its triennial Congress, September 12-16, in Montreal.