Deepwater Horizon | No One Was Listening | 1

0:00Jeanne Pascal:American scandal uses dramatizations that are based on true events. Some elements, including dialogue, might be invented, but everything is based on historical research.

0:26It's just before 9.45 p.m. on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. Aboard the fishing boat Ramblin' Wreck, Bradley shivers, crumples an empty can of beer and then calls out for another. Shivers and two of his buddies are on an overnight fishing trip, hunting for tuna in the deep waters of the Gulf. They've already had a great day's catch and plan to wake up early tomorrow to start again at first light. So while his friends go into the cabin for more beers, Bradley takes in their rods.

1:02It's a balmy spring evening, and the sea is so still that Shivers can make out the stars reflected in the water. He smiles and thinks, there's nothing like fishing on the gulf like this. But then suddenly, a bright flash lights up the sky. Shivers squints at the horizon, trying to make sense of what he's seeing. Then he hears a boom. The force of the sound hits Shivers' chest and rocks the entire boat. He grabs the railing as his rod clatters to the deck. One of his friends ducks his head out of the cabin. What the heck was that? Did we hit something? No, it was, I don't know, some kind of explosion.

1:37An explosion? Yeah, I saw this flash out there, and then, hey, pass me those binoculars. Shivers' friend hands him a set of binoculars, and he scans the horizon. Oh, something big is just burning up. Here, take a look. But as he goes to hand the binoculars to his friend, he hears a mayday call come across the ship's radio. It's an oil rig, the Deepwater Horizon, requesting immediate assistance. Shivers races across the deck to the radio and grabs a handset. Deepwater Horizon, this is the fishing boat rambling wreck. We copy your mayday. What's your position and status? Shivers waits for an answer, but there's only silence.

2:16Come in, Deepwater Horizon. This is rambling wreck. Repeat. What's your position and status? Shivers lowers the handset and glances over at his friends. They're not answering. What do we do? We've got to get over there, right? We have to help. We're just three guys in a fishing boat. What kind of help would we be? Well, we've got to do something. Who knows how long it'll take the Coast Guard to get out of here. We might be all they've got. Shivers hesitates as static crackles over the radio. He then lifts the handset to his mouth again. Deepwater Horizon, this is the rambling wreck. We are en route to assist.

2:49Repeat, we are en route to assist. Bradley Shivers starts his boat's engine and takes the helm. He doesn't need any charts to navigate. The fire in the distance is bright enough to light the way. While he steers, his friends call the Coast Guard and pull out everything they think might be useful in an emergency. First aid kits, life jackets, and flotation devices. But they have no idea what to expect. And as they race toward the burning rig, Shivers tries not to think about the silence at the other end of the radio.

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4:46Jeanne Pascal:From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American Scandal.

5:11Jeanne Pascal:On April 20th, 2010, the world watched in horror as flames consumed the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. 11 workers were killed and 17 others were wounded in the initial explosion. But that human tragedy quickly became an environmental disaster. Over the course of 12 weeks, millions of gallons of oil leaked into the Gulf in the largest such spill in history. Government agencies, conservation groups, and local communities scrambled to save beaches, wetlands, and wildlife. But all the while, the oil company responsible for the leak, British Petroleum, repeatedly minimized the scale of the disaster and failed to share vital information with the scientific community.

5:53According to the many ordinary citizens who were harmed, as well as journalists and industry experts, BP seemed more concerned with protecting its reputation and profits than people or the environment.

6:05Jeanne Pascal:But the Deepwater Horizon disaster was not unforeseeable. A federal judge would later rule that it was no accident, but instead the result of years of cost-cutting and corporate risk-taking, compounded by the failure of regulators whose job it was to protect the public. Time and again, BP had promised change only to cut the same corners and make the same mistakes. Eventually, the workers of the Deepwater Horizon and communities all across the Gulf were the ones who paid the price. This is Episode 1. No one was listening.

6:41It's the summer of 1989 in New York City. John Brown paces the Rainbow Room, an opulent Art Deco venue with sweeping views of Manhattan. Brown is a senior executive at British Petroleum, and he hopes the grand surroundings will soften the bad news he's about to deliver. He's gathered BP investors from all over the world to give his first address as the company's new head of exploration. Brown has been in the oil industry his entire career, Having started as an exploratory geologist on the frontiers of Alaska, he now holds a critical executive role at one of the most famous oil companies in the world.

7:17And as BP's new head of exploration, Brown's job is to find new sources of oil and gas and make them profitable. He knows the company's investors are expecting a positive update. After all, BP has been reporting healthy profits, but Brown knows that's only half the story. He waits for the investors to take their seats and then steps up to the podium. The room grows quiet as he begins his presentation. He doesn't sugarcoat the news. He tells his audience that British Petroleum is in decline. Profits may be soaring right now, but in the long term, the company's prospects look far bleaker. The majority of BP's oil comes from the North Sea, off the coast of the United Kingdom, and from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay.

7:59and recent technological advances have boosted extraction rates at those sites. But one thing is certain, eventually the oil there is going to run out. Brown pulls up an acetate slide that shows the last century of BP's oil reserves. They peaked in 1960 at about 70 billion barrels of oil, but now they're down to just 5 billion. Unless BP can discover new sources of oil soon, the business faces extinction. Hearing this news, the room dissolves into uneasy murmurs as the investors try to make sense of it all. Brown waits patiently at the podium. He knows it's a lot to take in. Eventually, the noise dies down and all eyes turn back to him.

8:41Brown then admits that he knows this was not what they wanted to hear, and it's not what he had hoped for in his first weeks on the job either. But he promises that he is the man to replenish BP's reserves and make the company a truly competitive player in the oil industry again.

8:56Jeanne Pascal:When the meeting ends, investors line up to shake Brown's hand and thank him for his honesty. And as the last of them files out of the Rainbow Room, Brown breathes a sigh of relief. The meeting went about as well as he could have hoped, but the real work has barely begun. The problems Brown is trying to fix at British Petroleum have roots reaching back almost a century to the very beginning of the company. BP began in the early 1900s as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. After it faced bankruptcy in 1914, it was rescued by the UK government and eventually became known as British Petroleum. The British government then held a controlling stake in the company for the next six decades, until the 1980s, when BP was sold off and became a private company.

9:38But in the years that followed, the newly independent business struggled. It had a complex bureaucracy, a bloated corporate structure, and heavy debt. Now, as the 1990s approached, BP is at a crossroads. John Brown is convinced that he has the ideas to turn the company around. He believes oil exploration should be about big risks and big rewards. And embracing Brown's plan, BP sells off over 80 % of its existing oil fields around the world. It then becomes a trailblazer in unstable political regions like the former Soviet states, Russia, and Azerbaijan. And it invests heavily in the newly emerging technology of deep water drilling.

10:19This bold approach is accompanied by a relentless focus on cost-cutting. Brown tells his team again and again that it's the only variable they can fully control. Oil prices, politics, geology, all of that is greatly out of their hands. But what BP spends is up to them. Brown uses this philosophy to slash the size of his workforce, outsource engineering, and cut operational budgets. If something isn't making BP money, it has to go. and from now on, exploration will live and die by one metric, profit per barrel. Brown's strategy pays off. His division opens significant new reserves in the sea around Scotland, West Africa, and the Gulf of Mexico.

11:00And these new oil wells secure the future of BP. As a result of his success, in 1995, Brown is promoted to CEO. And once he's installed in the top job, Brown announces his far bigger ambitions for the company. In September 1996, he meets with BP's board of directors in Berlin. Brown takes his seat at the head of the table while an assistant pours him a cup of coffee. He's feeling satisfied with progress so far. In his first year as CEO, he has already delivered a 30 % increase in net profit. But he knows that investors remain cautious. BP still isn't seen as a major player in the oil industry.

11:38Brown, though, is determined to change that.

11:40Jeanne Pascal:He takes a sip of coffee and then stands to address the room. He acknowledges the progress they've made, but warns against complacency. The world is entering another phase of globalization, and with it will come a wave of corporate consolidation. Brown is convinced that only the largest companies will survive in this new era. The rest will be swept away. So if BP wants to navigate the coming changes successfully, the company will need to grow and quickly. But new oil fields alone won't be enough. What Brown suggests is a merger. To leapfrog the competition, he proposes that the company open negotiations with a U.S.

12:17oil giant like Mobil or Amoco. A deal of that size would make BP one of the largest firms in the world. But at first, the board pushes back on this idea. Many of them are uneasy about the cause, complexity, and political risks of a merger. But eventually, Brown is persuasive. His articulate and confident demeanor wins over even the strongest skeptics in the room. So by the time he leaves Berlin, he has the board's approval to go shopping with a multi-billion dollar budget.

12:44Jeanne Pascal:His first talks with Mobil flounder. But in 1998, Brown successfully completes a deal with Amoco instead. This$48 billion merger is the biggest in history and makes BP the third largest publicly traded oil company in the world. And encouraged by his success, Brown doubles down on his strategy. BP fires tens of thousands of employees, outsources more jobs to third-party contractors, and then announces a deal to buy yet another American oil company, Arco. The markets like what they see. In 1999, BP's stock price increases by over 30%, and the London Financial Times lauds Brown as the sun king of the oil industry.

13:26But behind the scenes, there's trouble at the growing fossil fuel giant. Amid the mass layoffs and the challenges of integrating its new acquisitions, vital institutional knowledge has been lost at BP. Safety standards begin to slip and environmental accidents increase. Soon, that all draws the attention of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. In the late 1990s, the EPA catches a BP subsidiary illegally releasing hazardous waste in Alaska. BP pleads guilty to criminal violations of the Clean Water Act and is ordered to pay a multi-million dollar fine. As part of its punishment, the company must also implement an environmental compliance program that includes five years of probation under EPA supervision.

14:11If BP is deemed to have breached its commitments during this period, other penalties can be imposed, including even heftier fines and exclusion from all government contracts. One of the lawyers at the EPA assigned to the case is Jean Pascal. Her job is to evaluate whether BP is implementing its promises and adhering to the terms of its probation. As an EPA veteran of more than a decade, Pascal has worked with hundreds of companies across multiple sectors, and in her experience, most businesses are willing to change their behavior to avoid further punishment. And considering all that's at stake, Pascal is optimistic that BP will do the same.

14:48At first, that seems to be the case. BP executives proactively reach out to Pascal to discuss their plans, and a few months later, they invite her up to Alaska to inspect the company's operations for herself.

15:03After getting off her plane, she's picked up by a BP company bus. She's not the only one on this tour. BP is running a junket for regulators and politicians, and the bus hums with conversation as it makes its way to the oil field. Pascal looks out the window. It's her first time in Alaska, and as she gazes across the flat, icy landscape, she feels as if they could be driving across the moon.

15:25Jeanne Pascal:The bus then passes through a security checkpoint and enters the BP complex. Pascal and the other visitors get out. She takes a moment to look around. The scale of the operation here is vast. It's like BP has built a fortress at the end of the world. Miss Pascal? Pascal turns. An executive she recognizes for meetings in Seattle crunches across the snow toward her and shakes her hand with a gloved miff. He smiles. Well, welcome to Prudhoe Bay. Ah, good to see you again. A gust of wind blows through the complex and Pascal shivers. The BP executive reaches into his backpack and pulls out a thick BP-branded jacket.

16:05Jeanne Pascal:Hey, this is for you. You know, I was in Indonesia until a few months ago. Coming here was a shock to the system, I can tell you. I practically lived in one of these jackets the first week. I even wore it to bed. Pascal gratefully takes the jacket and puts it on. Oh, God, thank you. though you know I'll need to return it. As a federal employee, I can't accept gifts. Oh, of course, but we can't have you freezing to death after coming all this way. Now let me show you around. Pascal follows the executive through the complex of refinery buildings and housing blocks. Some of the structures are propped up on pilings above the snow.

16:37She points them out to the executive.

16:39Jeanne Pascal:What are the stilts for? Well, we keep the buildings and much of our pipeline on pilings. It protects the Arctic tundra underneath and keeps the heat from our infrastructure from thawing out the permafrost. Oh, interesting. We take our responsibility for the environment out here very seriously, Ms. Pascal. Even more so since the court case. Yet there was another spill here just last week. Yeah, and we reported it immediately. Look, we're not hiding anything. We know we've got work to do. We're not complacent. But right now, as we speak, we're recruiting new engineers and we're rolling out a series of safety improvements.

17:09I think you'll see by the end of your visit here that we're absolutely determined to turn things around. Jean Pascal is left impressed by BP's openness and the work its team is doing in Alaska. So when she returns to Seattle, she remains hopeful that BP is truly committed to changing its ways. But soon, Pascal will get a phone call that will turn that perception on its head and reveal that her trust in the oil company has been dangerously misplaced.

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19:40In the months that follow her visit to Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, EPA lawyer Jean Pascal continues to find BP helpful and proactive. Senior executives keep her constantly updated on their progress, and they send almost weekly accounts that seem to include even the most minor infractions. Their transparency and desire to improve appear genuine, and Pascal is optimistic that the oil company is turning things around in Alaska. Things seem to be going so well that by mid-2003, executives at BP are pressing for early dismissal of their case. The company's probation period isn't due to expire until early 2005, but given BP's progress, Pascal sees no reason to object.

20:20She has her hands full with other cases, and one less company to babysit wouldn't be a bad thing. So she tells BP that she will review the case and make a final decision in January 2004.

20:31Jeanne Pascal:But there are still problems in Alaska, and BP's leadership knows it. Back in 2001, executives commissioned an internal report on safety concerns at Prudhoe Bay. Its findings were damning. The report identified a fire suppression system that had been out of commission for six months, broken safety valves, and a list of outstanding maintenance issues that just kept growing. Overzealous cost-cutting was blamed, along with a fundamental lack of trust in all levels of management. But in the years since, little has been done to address the problems, and the report's conclusions have never been relayed to Jean Pascal.

21:08So as late as January 2004, Pascal has no idea of the reality on the ground in Alaska. But just days before the EPA is set to close the BP case, and release the company from probation, Pascal gets a phone call at her office in Seattle. Hello, Gene Pascal speaking. Hi, Ms. Pascal. We haven't talked before. My name's Mark Kovac. I'm a mechanical engineer at BP Alaska.