The Journal of Pipeline Engineering has just released its most popular papers for 2013. Established in 2001, the Journal is an independent, international quarterly published by Tiratsoo Technical and Clarion Technical Conferences. It focuses on all aspects of engineering for oil, gas and products pipelines. In addition to the hard-copy Journal, published papers are available via an online, fully searchable database of current and archived papers. Subscribers use this database as reference material throughout the year. The most popular papers are judged on those that are most accessed via this database.

The paper 'Deepwater Horizon: lessons for the industry' By Dr Jan Hayes and Prof Andrew Hopkins is one of the top four articles accessed most by subscribers throughout 2013. Below is the abstract:
The Deepwater Horizon incident has impacted significantly on the offshore drilling industry in the US and globally. The final environmental, political, and financial consequences will not be known for decades, but it is already clear that the incident has changed, and will continue to change, the way business is done for all operating companies, drilling contractors, regulators, and industry associations that function in the offshore oil and gas industry.
Social science research shows that high- performing organizations seek opportunities to learn from failures, and Deepwater Horizon provides such an opportunity for the pipeline industry. Whilst the technical details of well-control systems may not be directly relevant, there are broader organizational factors that can provide significant lessons to any organization that designs, maintains, and/or operates complex and potentially hazardous technology. Accident investigations, including Deepwater Horizon, continue to highlight common organizational failures that can have catastrophic consequences, and it is these lessons that are the subject of this paper. The key question is why accidents continue to occur despite the level of engineering and management system controls that are apparently in place.