Late last year Chevron and deepwater driller Transocean incurred a relatively minor spill of a couple thousand barrels of oil-laced drilling mud at the Frade prospect they were drilling off the coast of Brazil.

FORBES: Thumbing Nose At Brazil, Chevron Is Near Deal With Argentina's YPF

Achenbach argues that a series of minor failures and misunderstood interdependencies, combined with the extreme conditions of deep water drilling caused the BP Oil Spill.

FORBES: The Banality of Catastrophe: The New Normal of Oil Spills