BP Oil Spills: The Most Dangerous Human Effects On The Ocean

Oil covered everything: beaches, animals, plants, bottoms of boats. Approximately 205.8 million gallons of oil leaked into the ocean and toward the Louisiana shoreline. To put the amount in perspective, that oil could be used to drive a Toyota Prius around the earth 184,181 times (Repanich). All of this pollution and destruction because of one singular company: British Petroleum. Needless to say, the image of BP was tarnished because of this. What can a company do to come back from such a serious setback? This was the question that was faced by the company in 2010 (when the spill occurred), and is still being wrestled with today. By analyzing BP’s “Commitment to the Gulf” ad campaign, the brand’s desired identity is made very apparent. When it comes to oil, nearly all consumers are involved. However, BP does take specific steps in order to narrow down a target audience when it comes to advertising its product. Despite the hardships faced by BP stemming from the spill, consumers still have an addiction to oil. BP, the fourth largest oil company in the world (“Biggest Oil”), has such a firm hold on consumer society that it is a necessity in today’s consumer landscape. By pushing the brand’s identity to its target audience, BP used branding to overcome a severe controversy and rebuild the image it hoped to convey to consumers.

Out of all of these ways, oil spills can cause a noticeably excessive amount of damage to the ocean. Although only 12% of the oil entering the sea is caused by spills, they can deteriorate ocean life and environment more than any other pollution. One gallon of used oil spilled into the ocean, which contains toxic chemicals and heavy metals severely dangerous to the micro-organism at the base of the food chain, can cause an eight-acre layer

An estimated amount of 206 gallons were let loose in the water.This oil spill has made the records of being one of the largest oil spills that has ever occurred. It happened when an oil well approximately a mile below the surface.blew out. In addition, this caused an explosion on the BP Horizon rig that killed 11 people. Experts made many attempts to stop the oil flow but it took time to reach success. However, every minute passing by is a very crucial one. Within as little as one day 2.5 million gallons were released into the water. The well was capped on July15, 2010. Meaning that the oil leaked for a grand total of 85 days. Resulting in 572 miles of the Gulf Shore being covered in oil. Not to mention the hundreds of animals found and taken into care due to the oil spill. Of course long term effects won’t be able to be further approached until time passes and experts are able to have obtained enough data throughout the years. However, experts have concluded that the damage from this oil spill will not be completely over with until years to come. Still today clumps of oil are being found coming from the shore. The oil is not the only thing to worry about however. Chemicals still remain in the environment and therefore can still affect the nature and can result in a chemical reaction which may be harmful. If parts of the oil are not able to reach oxygen it can just be a big toxic reservoir damaging the environment waiting to cause trouble.The only way to remove things like this is mechanically which only further destroys the habitat. Al in all it is a lose lose

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill occurred on April 20, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. This oil spill was the largest spill in history in front of the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989. This oil spill released about 4.9 million barrels of oil into the ocean. This spill not only wreck havoc on the marine life but also the economic players that depended on ocean such as fisherman, tourism, and offshore drilling located along the gulf coast. Along will the spill the oil rig which was named Deepwater Horizon also went up in flames. This proved that the issue went far beyond just an oil rig that blew a line. Since this oil spill had drastic impacts all along the coast, BP which was the most liable for this incident faced criminal charges based on what happened. BP which knew the risks of deep ocean drilling failed to take the necessary safety procedures to reduce the risks of such incident occurring, thus was the reasoning behind placing most of the fault on them and not the other companies. The lack of regulatory oversight led to the issues and cost-cutting procedures opened the rig up to possible malfunctions like the one that occurred. During the spill into the gulf, BP sealed the well with cement which seemed to stop a majority of the oil from escaping the well. BP also recognized that the well was “dead” which was proven wrong when scientists still could conclude was leaking minor amounts of oil into the ocean. This spill not only proved to be harmful to the environment but also

Eleven people died and seventeen were injured (Friedman 13). The people died and got hurt when it exploded (Friedman 13). An examination of primary and secondary sources will reveal the historical significance of this event.

On April 20, 2010, 41 miles southeast of the Louisiana Coast, the largest man-made oil spill in U.S. history occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. The offshore oil rig known as Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean and under contract with British Petroleum (BP) exploded. The tragedy took the lives of eleven men. The event caused an estimated amount of 4.9 million barrels of oil to be released into the Gulf of Mexico. To honor the brave men and women whose heroism would help save many on board there was a movie

The rig was built by South Korean company Hyundai Heavy Industries. The rig was drilling a 35,050 feet (10,680 m) deep exploratory well in approximately 5,100 feet (1,600 m) of water. The well is situated in the Macondo Prospect in Mississippi Canyon Block 252 (MC252) of the Gulf of Mexico, whilst also maintained by Halliburton, and Transocean the rig was majority owned and operated by the British Petroleum. On April 20, 2010, high-pressure methane gas from the well expanded into the drilling riser and rose into the drilling rig, where it ignited and exploded, engulfing the platform. At the time, 126 crew members were on board: seven BP employees, 79 of Transocean and employees of various other companies. Eleven workers were presumed dead, never being found. The Deepwater Horizon sank on the morning of 22 April 2010. The efforts to contain the leak at first were unsuccessful due to miscalculations and misinterpretations of what was required. However, on September 19, 2010 the well was permanently sealed when a relief well was dug into the oil deposit and cement was poured into the oil well. The environmental impact, health consequences, economy and ultimately the death of the 11 workers were the consequent issues that arose with the tremendous release of oil into the ocean. These consequent problems were in part due to negligence as well as BP’s failure to fulfill their corporate ethical duties.

The BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill was one of the worst spills occurred in the history of the oil industry because the way it was carried out and the way it occurred. The had affected the people worldwide it’s didn’t just affect the people who were onboard or the company because had effects on the environment, share prices were dropping, the company had to pay huge amount into the fines to the governments and also, they had to pay huge amount to clean the gulf water and the affected shore area. The total amount BP spend in fines was about the $56.4 billion. This spill was worse than the spill occurred in Exxon Valdez because it damaged the shoreline of four states threatening more than 65000 acres of land to be damaged. Over 8000 animals

Oil spills are a worldwide issue- widely known for polluting the oceans, infecting plant life, and killing many different species of animals. In fact, during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, approximately 205.8 million gallons of oil was pumped into the Gulf of Mexico (“A Deadly…” 2011). Over 82,000 birds, 6,165 sea turtles, and around 25,900 different species of marine mammals were either harmed or killed because of The Deepwater Horizon spill (“A Deadly…” 2011). Not only are oil spills a huge biological issue, the mere production of oil has a negative effect on many ecosystems: contaminating oceans, air, soil, and killing many species of flora and fauna.

In the case of the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill, we examine the effects of an organization not being prepared for this particular crisis. The world scrutinized the actions, inactions, and the human decisions made by BP that led to a major catastrophic crisis. The organization was not prepared for a crisis of this magnitude. Our text stated that this type of negligence has been coined the term sloppy management. They were oblivious to the issues pertaining to the deep waters, the ocean wildlife and the habitats of those marine animals. They were not knowledgeable of several things, along with their initial conundrum of frantically searching for a way to stop the continued spilling of the oil into the ocean. One article quoted an official saying, “We knew how to respond to a surface spill, but this is completely different.”(Bond, D. 2013).

The Deepwater Horizon was a drilling rig explosion that occurred April 20, 2010, and ended in a fire. The rig was owned and operated by Transocean, and the drilling was done by BP in the Macondo Prospect oil field (McGill & Schwartz, 2010). Due to drilling below sea level, the explosion caused a fire and resulted in the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon, the death of 11 people and injured 17 others. The dangerous hydrocarbon gas that surrounded the blowout preventor malfunction, which caused the gas to encounter an ignition source was the cause of the explosion, and it led to massive oil spills in the offshore of the Gulf of Mexico (Crandall et al., 2014). It was considered to be the largest accidental oil spill in the world and an environmental

The oil spill started when an explosion happened on the oilrig known as the “Deepwater Horizon” oilrig. This explosion cause one of the pipelines along the sea floor to gush oil out over a period of 87 days. During the explosion 11 people working upon the oilrig went missing and still have not been found to this day. During the 87 days that the oil leaked out 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf which ended up being fatal for thousands people living along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. When the spill happened there was an immediate movement to try to save the estuaries and costal wetlands through controlled burns but most of the damage could not be controlled due to the gulfs

This one’s a given. Whenever a tanker springs a leak in rough seas or an oil rig has a faulty valve, a media frenzy soon follows. Images of black goop covering large swaths of ocean and washing up on once-pristine beaches can seem apocalyptic. However, according to WWF, while oil spills do cause huge damage to the environment, they are only responsible for 12% of the oil entering the ocean each year. A much larger proportion actually comes from our cities, through untreated sewage, polluted rivers, and surface runoff.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill happened on April 20, 2010 on the Gulf of Mexico. A fire engulfed the Deepwater Horizon oil-drilling rig which killed 11 of the 126 workers. On April 22, 2010 a second explosion sunk the rig to the bottom of the ocean. There was a safety valve that was tried but didn’t work. Around 60,000 barrels of oil leaked into the ocean each day. Total 5 million barrels of oil leaked. The oil slick covered around 2,500 miles. To stop the oil from leaking they tried small submarines to flip a switch and a large metal box to cover the well. Neither of them worked. A relief well pumped mud and concrete to plug the leak. The well was plugged for good on September 19, 2010.

The causes of ocean oil spills originate from hurricanes, people’s mistakes, equipment malfunctioning, and terrorist reactions. When an oil spill occurs, it often occurs in tankers, refineries, or pipelines that are being shipped to another facility (Background on Oil Spills). After the oil is spilled onto the salt water, it disperses at a fast rate, which makes oil slick. The oil continues to spread, causing it to weaken and it resembles a rainbow (Background on Oil Spills). When an oil spill occurs on the uppermost layer of water, it “evaporates, is degraded by sunlight, gets consumed by microbes, or washes up on beaches (Begley).