Ignorance Isn’t Bliss: BP, The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, and a Series of Catastrophes

British Petroleum, one of the most profitable organizations in the world, nearly went bankrupt after the Deepwater Horizon blowout that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. This blowout was hardly a rare event for the organization – British Petroleum had experienced a string of (fatal) catastrophes in less than a decade preceding Deepwater Horizon. In this study, we inquire why BP repeatedly experienced catastrophes and how the likelihood of their recurrence can be attenuated. We find that a contributing cause for recurring catastrophes was Strategic Ignorance, that is, the willful neglect of potentially salient information regarding safety. We locate the antecedents of Strategic Ignorance and discover that these are inextricably linked to governance design. In identifying these antecedents, we provide the foundations of a theory of ignorance that can be employed to attenuate the likelihood of industrial catastrophes.