Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

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

In April of 2010, the Gulf of Mexico ground to a halt. An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon mobile offshore drilling unit resulted in one of the worst environmental and economic catastrophes in history. Eleven members of the crew were killed, many others sustained serious and permanent injuries. A moratorium on drilling lasted long into the following year. Massive layoffs ensued across multiple business sectors. Many commercial fishing vessels could not leave port, and those that did caught far fewer fish. Oyster beds were destroyed and miles of wetlands were marred by oil. At the time, we could only imagine how pervasive the effects would be. Shortly after the explosion, Arnold & Itkin LLP, a Houston-based litigation boutique, which represented

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was one of the most infamous industrial environmental disasters ever. On April 20, 2010, a marine oil-drilling dig called the Deepwater Horizon exploded, releasing hundreds of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This explosion resulted in the loss of human life, massive environmental damage, and widespread damage to the livelihood of people living along the Gulf Coast. The organization with the largest share in the oil drill, BP (Beyond Petroleum), is still facing consequences of this spill and lost millions of dollars as well as national support. The Obama administration also received criticism

The Deep Horizon oil spill was the largest environmental disaster the U.S. has ever faced. On April 20th, 2010, the Deep Horizon oil rig had exploded releasing over 134 million gallons of crude oil and over four million pounds of gas into the Gulf of Mexico waters. The oil rig was owned and operated by off shore oil drilling company called Tans-ocean and subleased by a common oil company called BP. The well was located on the sea floor which is 4,993 feet below the surface and it extended over 18,000 feet within the rocks. The explosion was caused by surges of natural gas that had blasted through a concrete core within the Caspian Sea in September 2008. Even though this explosion was two years before the Deep Horizon rig explosion, it

The biggest marine oil spill in history was the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill also known as the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. In the interview video Mike Williams describes what happened on the oil rig he was working on. He said that the electricity on the rig got so powerful that the lights got brighter and brighter until they exploded along with his computer. When he tried to leave his station to go and help the engineer and figure out what was going on, he hears a high-pitched sound and the door exploded and launched him across the room. Then he started to crawl his way out even though he could not see and one of his arms was injured, and when he reached another door it also exploded and launched him back against a wall. And when he

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 spill occurred on 20 April 2010 and was caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 workers and injured 17 more. The drilling rig, located 66 kilometers southeast of the Louisiana coast, left an oil gusher that was finally capped on July 15, almost 2 months later. This was the largest accidental marine oil spill in history and the largest offshore environmental disaster in the United States (Telegraph, New York Times, BBC News). It is estimated by scientists that over 4.9 million barrels of oil were released into the ocean, about half of the crude oil the U.S. imports each day and worth $400 million (Popular Mechanics, CBC News). About 1070 kilometers of coastline were contaminated.

Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater offshore oil drilling rig licensed by BP. It was drilling the deepest oil well in US history, in the Gulf of Mexico. On April 20th, 2010, there was an explosion on the oil rig that caused it to burn and sink. This resulted in the deaths of 11 workers, the injury of 16 others, and a massive oil spill. With a volume of 4.9 million barrels pumped into the gulf (“On Scene Coordinator Report Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill”), and a total covered area of 68 thousand square miles ("BP / Gulf Oil Spill"), it is considered the largest environmental disaster in US history. (Zeller).

BP, a leader in deep water oil drilling efforts, triggered the worst environmental disaster in America’s history, when on April 20, 2010 a gas release and subsequent explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The oilrig, which BP was leasing from Transocean, a Swiss company, was operating on the Macondo exploration well, which is located roughly 50 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion killed 11 workers, and injured 17 others, and dumped an estimated 205 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil spills have been a major environmental problem that can be hard to detect and expensive to clean up. Since 1969 there have been at least 44 major oil spills of over 420,00 gallons that have had an affect on waters in the United States (Response.restoration.noaa.gov, 2015) The most recent devastating major oil spill was the 2010 Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling rig. Nearly 125 million gallons of oil was released into the Gulf of Mexico that wreaked havoc on local economies and wild life with effects that are still lingering to this day (Elliott, 2015). One part of dealing with a major oil spill, such as the Deepwater Horizon, is figuring out how much oil is involved and researches at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences (VIMS) have developed a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that is capable of gauging the volume of oil spilled by measuring the thickness of an oil slick (Malmquist, 2015).

Despite the positive development of oil and gas industry in this last decade, there is something more valuable have been put on the line. The environment needs to pay for every single mistake made by the human. One of the greatest mistakes in humankind history is an oceanic oil spill. It has become a major environmental problem that the world is facing right now. History has shown how this problem could go. From the first major commercial spill of 1967 in the United Kingdom, up to the most recent one, at BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig, that leaked thousands barrel of oil into the Gulf of Mexico since April 2010. Most large-scale oil spills have been disastrous and the marine wildlife is still recovering. Hence, the tension for a better cleanup technology increases.

The incident shows that some corporate litigations are unavoidable, and they can be very costly to the organization. Therefore, organizations should play an active role in preventing or dealing with litigations. An organization must analyze its environment to identify risks, and insure itself against major risks. BP was involved in oil drilling in the deep sea, the company should have identified all the risks involved. Additionally, most organizations face litigations because they fail to communicate effectively after a crisis, BP should have adopted an open approach of communication to all stakeholders. Families of the victims needed to be informed about the search mission, and their concerns needed to be answered. Apart from open communication, an organization can minimize litigations by understanding applicable laws and maintaining a higher standard of safety. Maintaining high standards of safety can be very costly, but litigations are more

As a result of this, the explosion had resulted in the deaths of eleven personnel and the dispersal of nearly five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico (Pallardy, 2014).

On April 20th, 2010 an explosion occurred that would be considered one of the worst oil spills in U.S. history. The explosion was cause by a surge of natural gas that made it way to the Horizon rig’s platform that ignited. This caused the rig to capsize and sink, thus breaking risers that were being use to counter act the large amount of pressure from oil and natural gasses (Pallardy, 2015). The explosion killed 11 workers and injured 17 others. The explosion caused a massibe leak in the oil wellhead. It took 87 days for the wellhead to be closed and it is estimated that over that time around 210 million gallons of oil leaked into the gulf (Gulf Oil Spill, 2011).

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, located in the Gulf of Mexico exploded killing 11 workers and injuring 17. The oil rig sank a day-and-a-half later. The spill was referred to as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, BP oil spill, Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and BP oil disaster. It was first said that little oil had actually leaked into the ocean but a little over a month later the estimate was 12,000-19,000 barrels of crude oil being leaked per day. Many attempts were made to stop the leak but all failed until they capped the leak on July 15, 2010, and on September 19 the federal government declared the well “effectively dead.” In the three months that it took to finally put a stop the leak, 4.9 million barrels of oil were