Beyond The Deepwater Horizon Essay

According to National Geographic the main causes of ocean pollution are, “ Sewage, toxic chemicals from industries, land runoff, large oil spills, ocean mining, and littering.” Another

Right now, the oceans are facing destruction. Each day new pollutants find their way into the ocean's waters. The pollutants that contaminate the ocean take many forms. Each year millions of gallons of oil are put into the ocean. Toxic materials are dumped into the oceans and add up to deadly proportions. Tons of trash such as plastics and paper are pulled out of the ocean each day. This trash contaminates the water and causes many deaths of marine animals. Everyone on the planet has polluted the oceans one way or another. Factories that are in various industries make an enormous contribution to ocean pollution. These factories use unbelievable amounts of water to make their products. The Natural Resource Defense Council says, "More than four out of every ten gallons of water used in the US are used for industrial purposes." A large amount of this water is dumped back into the oceans. This water is usually not clean, and may contain thousands of different chemicals. When this happens it can kill marine life, contaminate food supplies, and endanger people who use waters for fishing, swimming, or drinking. Water is also dumped back into the oceans by power plants who use it to cool reactors. This water is placed back into the oceans at high temperatures. Dumping water at these high temperatures causes a disruption in the marine environment. According to the book by Peter Weber, "The water from power

There are many ecological problems facing us in the United States today. Among those issues includes global warming, our dependence on fossil fuel, saving our endangered wildlife, and ensuring that we have safe and sufficient water. There is one environmental issue, however, that streams across all these areas, and threatens the safety of our country, and of many bodies of water all over the world, and that is the issue of Oil Spills. An oil spill can be defined as, “an unintentional release of crude oil or refined oil products into the environment.” Oil spills are considered to be a major source of chemical pollution. Most of these spills occur through human error, however, there are cases where oil seeps through deposits under the ocean floor. These spills can occur on land, in the ocean, and even when oil is spilled down storm drains that lead directly into lakes and rivers. Not only do oil spills threaten to destroy our ecosystem and endanger our wildlife, oil spills can be harmful to human beings as well. The reason that this is so stems from the fact that oil itself is considered to be “semi-volatile.” This means that it can evaporate into the air and create a heavy vapor which lingers and can be breathed in by humans, and can travel deeply into people’s lungs. This can in turn cause many health issues such as nausea, vomiting, headaches, and even difficulty breathing. Over an even longer period of time, the chemicals that are found in oil, and that are evaporated into

On April 10, 2011, an oilrig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded. This explosion killed 11 crewmembers and caused the rig to sink to the bottom of the ocean. This caused an estimated 180-185 million gallons of oil to flow into the gulf. It wasn’t until July 15, 2010 until the oil was contained and stopped flowing. The Gulf was virtually covered in crude oil. There were many effects from this spill and many of them were environmental. Animals had to swim through this oil and birds that landed in it were no longer able to fly because of the heavy oil on their wings. At least a thousand birds died and hundreds of other animal also perished. The oil washed up onto beaches and caused them to close to the public. Some of the effects were even

Oil spills are no uncommon occurrence with nearly 14,000 oil spill’s yearly causing water pollution as a consequence of many companies not knowing how to properly dispose of oil along with citizens not knowing proper procedures,one of the largest happened in 1989 when an Exxon Valdez oil tanker tipped over into the ocean.

For example, crude oil tankers accident can release lots of oils which will be detrimental to the aquatic lives, agricultural land and environments as a whole and will cost lots of money in clean-up. According to the National Strategy for the Marine Transportation System (2008) “approximately 100,000 tons of oil from sources other than natural seeps is released annually into North America’s waterways and sea lane. Petroleum products spilled into waterways can have both short- and long-term effects on water quality and living resources”. There are lots of environmental impacts such as water pollution and contamination that can result in hazardous waste being discharged in the maritime ports which increases risk of illness, such as respiratory disease or cancer, causes significant damage water quality, and consequently affects marine life and ecosystems and human

Influenced to take in account in 2010 that the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe was inevitable, has convinced me to question why such a devastating event could not be averted. This had influenced me to commit myself to an EPQ regarding chemical damage from oil spills as well as doing wider reading and work experience, which has further facilitated me to advance my prospects in this fascinating field of engineering and greater appreciate the work of chemists. By doing a vast amount of research, I have concluded on how BP sacrificed safety over productivity. Such is a concept I believe encapsulated the reason for the failure of 2 separate blow-out preventers where multiple scenarios had not been scrutinised for weaknesses. The significance of successful

On April 20, 2010 the British Petroleum (BP) licensed Deep Water Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. The initial blast killed 11 people, injuring 17 others. Over a period of the next 87 days, over 200 million gallons of oil was pumped into to Gulf of Mexico, polluting over 16,000 miles of shoreline, including the coast of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. The Deep Water Horizon oil spill is the largest human-caused disaster in U.S. history roughly 20 times larger than the Exxon-Valdez oil spill in March of 1989. The spill had many negative effects on the tourism and the fishing industry. Many businesses such as fishing, oyster harvesting, and charter fishing boats were directly impacted by oil in the water. Following the spill, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) closed all recreational and commercial fishing in affected waters between the mouth of the Mississippi River and the Pensacola Bay, in Florida. With the world being completely dependent on oil it is hard to argue that

Oil spills can be fixed, but oftentimes put so much pollution into the environment that no solution can take place quickly enough to stop the damages. Sunlight can help degrade some of the oil if exposed for long enough. (Sadd 3) In his article, Sadd also states that sometimes microorganisms act as “oil-eating” creatures through a process called natural biodegrading. (3) In most cases the remainder of the oil will wash up on coasts across the country, which can still cause

The damage, caused by the transportation of oil is strongly associated with pollution of the World Ocean. With the increasing oil production in the 20th century, its transportation all over the world proceeded mostly by the sea. Despite the fact that the transportation of oil is a rather safe movement, the extent of traffic and size of tankers is the reason of many accidents, which always have a huge implication. In the years 1970-1985 there were 186 cases of oil spills, each of more than 1,300 tons. In 1989, the tanker "Exxon Valdez" ran aground off the coast of Alaska, releasing 39,000 tones of crude oil what formed an oil slick covering an area of 3000 square kilometers. That caused the irreparable harm to the environment (Oil and Chemical Spills/Significant Incidents, NOAA's Ocean Service).

The Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater offshore oil drill. On April 20th 2010, an explosion happened on the rig caused by a blowout. A blowout is an uncontrolled release of crude oil and natural gas. The resulting fire could not be extinguished. On April 22nd, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon sank. The rig left the well gushing at the seabed and caused the largest oil spill in the U.S. waters. The explosion caused the Deepwater rig to burn and sink. This resulted in a massive offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the world, and the largest environmental disaster in the U.S. history. The Deepwater Horizon explosion made a negative impact in people’s personal lives, people’s work lives and wildlife.

In this paper we explore the implications of BP's strategy after the Deepwater Horizon incident in terms of the public perception as well as how this may impact upon their performance and the strategic implication of the Deepwater Horizon Accident on BP's performance

There are lots of pollution problem around the world, we have urban air pollution, contaminated water source, industrial mining but the worst of them all, pollution caused by petroleum. Petroleum or fossil fuel is our main energy source in today’s world, but it has caused pollution in variety of ways. It caused environmental pollution, the hydrocarbon molecules in petroleum is toxic to many living things including humans, it also has sulfur and nitrogen compounds which can cause chemical reactions with our environment and produce poisonous chemicals. It can also pollute our environment through adequately frequent oil spills. In 1 of the largest oil spills ever in history, the Sea Island Installations, Persian Gulf oil spill in Kuwait 1991 has caused 240,000,000 gallons of oil being lost and the mass is equivalent to 816,000 tons. These oil spills cause

Every year there are thousands of oil spills that occur across the nation; both minor and major spillages. The oil from the spills typically arise in 3 areas: rivers, bays, and the ocean. Nearly all the accidents involving oil spills are a result of tankers, barge, pipelines, refineries, drilling rigs and storage facilities. When looking at the sources of the oil spills its estimated that oil tankers make up around 10 percent of the global marine oil pollution, natural resources is about 5 percent, tanker traffic including shipping operations, and other shipping perorations such as illegal discharges and tank cleaning is about 35 percent. 45 percent is roughly from industrial effluents and oil rigs, while 5 percent is from undefined sources (). All the oil from theses spills usually occur in freshwater or the ocean, floating on top of the surface. The oil when spilled spreads our rapidly and creates a layer called oil slick. While over time if the oil is left unattended it will spread out which results in a rainbow-like substance called sheen. When it comes to oil from oil spills in general there are various types, but most notable is the petroleum hydrocarbon (Crude oil). Thus, the petroleum hydrocarbon, when it is spilled into the environment there is a thick sludge that forms and damages surrounding environment but damages wildlife the most. When it comes to wildlife and oil spills there are many factors involved to determine the level of damage that has occurred, as

Marine oil pollution, caused by discharges from ships, and leakages from oil platforms and oil-tanker accidents, is a major threat to fragile marine and coastal ecosystems and it is a subject of increasing public concern.