Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico Essay

On April 20, 2010, one of BP’s drilling wells below the Gulf of Mexico exploded and caused a disastrous oil spill. Thousands of barrels of crude oil flowed into the gulf every day, causing widespread pollution in the Gulf of Mexico (Law Brain, n.d). The habitats of many bird species are threatened by this oil spill.

Imagine 2,500 to 68,000 square miles covered in 4.9 million barrels of oil. No, imagine being covered in 4.9 million barrels of oil. Picture yourself gasping for air in an ocean filled with oil. That is exactly what birds, sea turtles, dolphins, and other animals had to do after the most catastrophic oil spill of all time occurred on April 20, 2010.

With all of the disasters mankind has caused to this earth, one might wonder if things like earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, etc. are nothing more than a response to our actions. The BP oil spill, which took place in the Gulf of Mexico, is easily recognizable as the worst oil spill disaster in American history. More than 200 million gallons of crude oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days total. The entire 16,000 miles of the Gulf coastline were affected. This included Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. The oil may have stopped gushing in 2010, but it has yet to stop washing up on the shore.

The oil spill created long term problems for the living organisms that inhabit the Gulf of Mexico. The oil covered the feathers of birds, making them unable to float at the surface. The oil killed some of the deep sea coral as far as seven miles away from the site. Mammals ingested the oil, which resulted in some of the mammals having internal bleeding and ulcers. This has also lead to an increase in sea turtles stranding, sick dolphins, and a decrease in population of many marine animals. This disaster stuck during the breeding season for many species of wildlife. “The oil’s toxicity may have hit egg and larval organisms immediately”, which could have wiping out those age classes. Population dips and cascading food web has occurred due to

The Deepwater Horizon was a nine year old, ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible, offshore drilling rig built in South Korea. In 2008, British Petroleum (BP) leased it from Transocean to drill for oil in the Gulf Coast. In September 2009, the rig drilled the deepest oil well in history at a depth of 35,055-feet. On April 20, 2010 while drilling the rig exploded at 9:45PM (CST), killing eleven workers and injuring seventeen others. It was caused when methane gas from the well shot all the way up and out of the drill column, expanded onto the platform then ignited and exploded. The explosion then led the rig to burn, with the resulting fire unable to be extinguished 2 days later it sinked leaving

Our Earth is something very sacred. It’s a home for every living thing that has obtained this planet. There is only one, and sometimes that escapes our dear minds. How long will it last? How long shall it be before humans cut the last tree, shoot the last deer, or pollute the last bit of water? Humans have used the Earth in various ways for their own selfish reasons because it is so resourceful. It is very easy to manipulate what is given to us, especially when it is given in an abundance. The Earth has to treat itself as its own doctor due to the constant damage it is dealing with. It also has to constantly restock up on all essential resources, because since the Earth has been created, it’s one job was to be a supplement of needs for the

The Ocean Ranger was an offshore exploration oil drilling platform that sank in Canadian waters 315 kilometres southeast from St. John's Newfoundland, on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland on February 15, 1982, with 84 crewmembers onboard. The Ocean Ranger was the largest semi-submersible, offshore exploration, oil drilling platform of the day. Built in 1976 by Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, it operated off the coasts of Alaska, New Jersey, Ireland, and in November 1980 moved to the Grand Banks. Since it was so big it was considered to have the ability to drill in areas too dangerous for other rigs. The government thought it was unsinkable, so they felt that there was no need to train a crew very well.

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

King, Rawle O. 2013. Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster. 1st ed. [Place of publication not identified]: Bibliogov.

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

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 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill was an oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico was caused by a faulty blowout preventer this is part of the oil rig that was designed by the workers as an emergency shutdown valve. As a result of this anywhere from 1,000 barrels of oil to 5,000 barrels of oil were lost over the course of 100 days. A blowout preventer is a machine on the oil rig for safety to shut down the flow of oil coming out of the well at the bottom of the seafloor. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill caused a good number of environmental damage as well as killed wildlife and has taken the lives of 11 workers that day. The oil would eventually make it’s way to coastlines (shorelines) of Texas , Florida , Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.

The e Deepwater Horizon oil spill at the Macondo well began on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on 20 April 2010 killed 11 people and caused almost 5 million barrels of oil to flow into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill covered 68,000 square miles of land and sea and triggered a response effort involving the use of nearly 2 million gallons of dispersant chemicals (Pallardy). Considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in history, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS) resulted in widespread environmental and economic damage, the exact nature of which is only beginning to be understood (Shultz 59). This paper will address the causes of this unmitigated ecological disaster and discuss steps that need to be taken to prevent a similar disaster from occurring again.

#1 It may be difficult to over-emphasize the strategic importance of oil in the present and near future world economy and balance of power. Security of the world’s major sources of oil and the prevention of their domination or control by other powers had certainly been a central, a constant and an openly stated foreign US policy for over 50 years. There is every reason to believe that it still is. As to the significance of the ‘oil component’ in the invasion of Iraq, much has been written about this subject, especially outside the USA. There certainly is a strong case for the USA to gain some control over the sources of finite and indispensable world oil. This is different from simply trying to steal Iraq’s oil money as some people have been

In the beginning, England knew about the Middle East’s sources of oil, but oil was not a major source of energy until England created a battleship that ran by fuel. Once England had a need for oil, every other power followed along, including the United States; oil became an required component in industrialization. The need for oil in the whole world increased; America targeted the ME region because it had more than 40% of the oil reserve in the world. For Americans, oil became the most important source of energy, and the most important tool for America to get return capital and to advance technology. The USA developed its own sources of oil, but their need was greater than the sources available, and the ME seemed to have endless amount of oil and endless need of spending its revenues on buildings and not focused on improving the area or make any use of all that money before oil run out