Economic Concerns Of Deepwater Completions And Workover Essay

Offshore drilling has become an essential part of today’s oil production and demand for energy. With the growth of population comes the increasing demand for oil. The oil industry today, is one of the most used providers of energy. Today in the 20th century the majority of the population in America has a car and cars needs gas to run. The oil reserves in the earth that are easily accessible via land are starting to run dry and are becoming harder to find. This is why we have begun to see more and more offshore oil drills. Although there are benefits of offshore drilling such as profit, lower gas prices, and becoming less dependent on foreign oil. There are also many drawbacks in which if something were to go wrong, the mistake would be catastrophic impacting the environment, the nature, and have trickling effects all around the world.

The goal of our research is to seek possible solutions to reduce the risks of offshore oil spills. To attain this goal, we gathered information from over twenty sources, including “Deepwater Horizon oil” from Wikipedia research and an article from the LA Times.

major risks off shore drilling the causes and the effect on the environment. The overall argument

Still people make the argument that oil is just too important to stop drilling and that if anything we should drill more. Again author Margaret Haerens talks about how “According to the nation academy of Sciences, current cleanup methods can only remove a small fraction of the oil spilled into the ocean, leaving the remaining oil to continue affecting ocean ecosystems over time” (126). The long term impacts of offshore spills continue to corrupt the oceans and who knows when they will completely be gone. The effects of the oil directly on sea life such as sea birds, fish, shellfish, and other sea life are extremely dangers. “Studies have shown that tiny amounts of oil – as little as one part per billion – can harm pink salmon and cause their eggs to fail” (Haerens Margaret). Imagine swimming in the ocean when a large pool of toxic oils comes floating along right into you when you are trying to enjoy a day at the beach. Not only is offshore drilling have one of the longest lasting ecological impacts on society and living things on and off shore, it effects our economy as well.

In addition, offshore oil drilling causes water pollution and disrupts the marine ecosystem. Doctor Ermal Xhelilaj states in his article, "The Behavior and Effects of Oil Pollution into Marine Environment and Oceans” that “Shorelines are also vulnerable to the oil pollution and a study of the US Coast Guard has revealed that exposed rocky cliffs and seawalls, wave cut rocky platforms, fine to medium-grained sand beaches, coarse-grained sand beaches, mixed sand and gravel beaches, gravel beaches/ riprap

Offshore oil drilling is a controversial topic because when oil spills, it does extensive amounts of damage to the environment. Countries capable of mining oil in the ocean reap the economic benefits in addition to reducing their dependency on external oil. While it is uncontroversial that offshore drilling is a massive boon for those countries, the environmental consequences of a spill also affect the economic welfare of nearby residents. Oil contaminates animals through a process called biomagnification, where chemicals progressively become more detrimental to the animals the higher they are on the food chain. When oil spills into the ocean, it impairs the growth of native species and deteriorates the ecosystem. As a result, the livelihood of people in the tourist industry, fisherman, and shrimpers is crippled and may take decades to recover.

The demand for oil is ever expanding as the world’s energy needs continue to increase resulting in companies striving to meet the demand for oil production. The huge costs of oil importation are what ultimately push the need to tap into our backyard rather than import oil from countries around the world for significantly higher prices. While oil corporations can be credited with providing people minimized costs of products due to their offshore oil drilling efforts. The fact of the matter is that having a cleaner environment is seen as being more vital than having a cheaper product at the cost of an unhealthier environment. Though, many experts agree that the potential risks of offshore oil drilling are often exaggerated, recent disasters such as the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill have proven

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 largest unintentional marine oil spill in human history took place in the Gulf of Mexico in the year 2010. The event resulted after methane gas was released and exploded in the BP-owned Macondo exploration well on April 20, 2010. The fire continued for 36 hours and the oil drilling rig, Deepwater Horizon, sank on April 22, 2010. This event led to the loss of 11 lives and the spill of about 4.9 million barrels of oil. The oil spill affected as much as 68,000 square miles. After long efforts, the well was capped on July 15, 2010 and sealed two months later on September 19, 2010.

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.

There are many sources of contamination from oil and gas production wells. Production wells are used to extract oil and natural gas from deep rock formations. To drill a well, a bit is drilled into the deep rock formations that contain natural gas and oil. As the bit is lowered, fluid and mud that contain chemical additives, is shot down with it to keep it cool. Rock debris, known as cuttings, are created and pulled up along with fluids to the surface. At the surface they are flared. Air contamination comes from exhaust fumes from the equipment as well as venting and flaring of natural gas. Soil contamination comes from on-site storage pits holding onto cuttings/mud. Sludge pits can leach out and cause water contamination nearby.

The continuous oil spill of the oil well was triggered by the explosion on the platform of Deepwater Horizon oil rig, and up to this day, the incident is still damaging the ecosystem it took place in. The disaster stemmed from a number of cause such as faulty engineering, failure to follow proper safety precautions, and negligence. Problems had started to rise even weeks prior to the explosion of the oil rig. The platform was vulnerable to the highly flammable gas travelling up through its pipes. According to Tom Eley (2010), the gas was only seen as a minor concern by the British Petroleum company despite having been forewarned by the government that it was indeed a serious

Like the BP oil spill, there were major loss of marine life and marine deformities. If the water is dumped improperly, it can have the same effect on aquatic life. Lastly, would be the cause of the unknown. We must put into consideration in the event where drilling is being done and for some unidentified reason an explosion occurs. The result of this can cause an entire town to be destroyed, numerous fatalities and leave thousands homeless. Although one might argue an explosion cannot occur due to the lack of oxygen, we must still think about the natural disasters that can occur beyond one’s control. Despite the negative effect on humans and the environment, shale wins when it comes to being eco-friendly. Shale being a natural gas is “clean” energy source. By burning natural gas, only half of carbon dioxide is emitted when compared to coal and synthetic fuels. Furthermore, in some areas where there has been an oil spurge, some towns have experienced an increased in economic activities. Hotels and restaurants nearby may experience the most activities since it may be closer for some individuals to catch a quick eat or

Another benefit of offshore oil drilling consists of increasing job opportunities for people. The unstable economy in the United States results in people losing their jobs quite often. In the book Offshore Drilling, the loss of job opportunity in the United States is explained this way:

Offshore drilling is the process of mining under the sea floor and vacuuming the oil into different depositories. It is useful for the required oil we use daily in the United States, but more important disadvantages are taking place. There are several occurrences that occur or can occur that can ruin an ecosystem. Animals are at risk before the drilling