HOUSTON -- Benton Baugh thinks big and dreams big. When the oil companies, drillers or rig owners have a problem they can't solve, they call him.
"We have a long history of being able to do this. I've been designing oil-field equipment for 50 years,” Baugh said.
That’s why he’s been called to Capitol Hill to testify before a hearing with the House Committee on Science and Technology.
"I don't expect to change the world but I do hope to give a little bit more reasonableness to the situation," he said.
Reasonableness is often in short supply in Congress, and that is illustrated, some in the oil business say, by the deepwater drilling moratorium that is putting tens of thousands of workers’ jobs at risk.
"The ultimate question is, are you improved by shutting it down and coming back at a later time and starting again? Or are you better off by continuing to operate," Baugh said he will tell the committee.
President Barack Obama insists that the moratorium is about safety.
However, Baugh thinks ultimately it carries more danger.
"You have to go through that learning curve all over again and that learning curve, when you are starting up is the least safe time in a business lifetime," he said.
In fact, the vast majority of accidents in the oil industry come during project startup or shutdown.
The biggest issue, Baugh will tell Congress, is the people.
"The systems are in place the quality is place,” he said. “You may well need to take it to the next generation, and thus improve the quality as we go. The quality of the equipment is certainly in place to do what we need to be doing."
