BOP equipment and systems have predictably changed as a result of the Macondo incident. While these changes have been driven by regulatory impetus, additional progress has also occurred as a result of risk and financial pressures. The combination of these drivers has resulted in noticeable progress to date, and is expected to continue to generate improvements at an increasing pace in the near term. Thus far, advances in processes and procedures represent the most significant category, but ongoing work on the equipment, which takes longer to engineer, test, and implement, will also result in much improved reliability for this critical safety system.

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