subject: What Happened To Deepwater Horizon? 2 Reasons To Choose Oil Rig Jobs [print this page] If you're thinking about working on an offshore oil platform, you might remember the name "Deepwater Horizon" and shudder in fear. Catastrophe and casualty are the perfect ingredients for a news story, less so for actually understanding issues. So let's take a look at what happened.
In short, it's what happens when any fine-tuned artificial system collapses. Every economic endeavour, from selling portable music devices to flying a rocket into space, requires an analysis of risks and benefits, and it's obvious in the case of Deepwater that someone made a ghastly mistake. To err is human, and considering that nothing of the sort has happened within the region in two decades, we ought to find preventative measures rather than punitive ones.
Offshore drilling has never had a good rep - that much we'll concede. In a way these incidents are not unlike air disasters. It is now common knowledge that flying is by far the safest mode of transportation per passenger-mile, but the sheer scale of it all when things do go wrong simply leaves many of us hysterical.
*Should I Go Then? There's no point in asking this question. You're ready for a job on a platform when you know for a fact that the answer is yes, and if your guts say otherwise, no amount of rational discourse is going to make you feel better.
If you want to know the real deal behind the risks, go no further than the insurance people because they have to pay up when things don't add up. And re-insurers (big insurers for little insurers, like Swiss RE) are happy to go on record covering these rigs because overall the statistics are sound. Offshore oil platform work is fundamentally a safe line of work, just like most modern primary industries.
*What about My Gut Feelings? Psychologists constantly reassure us that our brain is working against us like a double-crosser. We have got an instinct for danger detection, so long as the threat comes in the shape of a woolly predator and not six hundred pages of statistical appendix. Fear can be excessive or inadequate, and neither is good enough for those of us who operate in a modern society.
One way to tame your fears is by getting involved in bringing about a solution, either through educating yourself or getting your hands dirty. An oil spill like Deepwater has summoned thousands of volunteers over a week or so, and each of them get to know something about our civilisation's trade-off between conservation and development as they try to scrub oil off ducklings.
If you want a job, don't let your fears pull you back. Do whatever it takes and take whatever you can in this field, and soon you'll be in a position to judge for yourself whether offshore oil is indeed the best solution for the world's energy problem. And unlike pundits and bloggers, you'll be truly justified in voicing any opinions, because you've actually been there.
