Effects of the BP Oil Spill

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.

On April 20th 2010 an explosion on an oil ridge of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, was the cause of the greatest environmental disaster in history of the United States. This explosion took the lives of eleven men who were working on the ridge, and also ruptured an oil line, which dumped more than 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This oil spill significantly affected the wildlife of the gulf coast, killing hundreds of fishes, birds, and reptile that call the gulf coast home. The spill also affected global supply chain for major industries.

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.

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.

Yes, losing human life was bad enough already, but we also lost a lot of oil and most importantly the spill effected the marine life. The fish, turtles and birds that were in the area, were all drenched in the oil, majority of it didn’t survive. The fish that have survived, where infected/affected by the chemicals. As we all know oil does not stay in one area, it spreads like butter on the hot skillet, effecting even larger marine life area than expected. Obviously BP and people responsible for the spill have faced numerous fine and conducted numerous operations to clean up the mess, but it is almost impossible. As time progressed, some oil eventually sunk to the bottom, which effected coral and food that fish eat. According to CNN, “Scientists continue to study environmental impacts, but five years after the spill, the long-term negative effects remain unclear and are, in many cases, highly disputed.”(Griffin et al., 2015, para.

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

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

Gill, Duane A., J. Steven Picou, and Liesel A. Ritchie. "The Exxon Valdez and BP oil spills: a

The leak after it was fixed was the size of Kansas (Friedman 100). There was 47,829 local, state, and federal responders to help clean up the oil (Friedman 100). There was 9,700 vessels that helped clean up the oil spill which were 6,500 government and commercial vessels and 3,200 vessels of opportunity (Friedman 100). 3.8 million feet of hard boom and 9.7 million feet of soft boom was used during the clean up to clean up the oil (Friedman 100). There was 127 surveillance aircraft used to help with the cleanup (Friedman 101). There was 1.4 million barrels of liquid waste collected and 92 ton of solid waste recovered (Friedman 101). They recovered more than 800,000 barrels of oily water from the Ocean and Coastal areas (Friedman 101). The oil spill effected the fish population by a large amount (Brown 18). The largest US oil spill in history is the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, which impacted ecosystems and residents of the Gulf Coast (Peres 1208). In 3 months over 200 million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico (Peres 1208). The BP controlled burned 1.84 million gallons of chemicals to break up the oil (Peres 1208). The clean-up employed several thousand workers (Peres 1208). The

BP is one of the largest company producer in both oil and natural gas in the United States, venturing on exploration and discovery, Deepwater drilling and gas supply chains. On April 20th 2010, 11 men lost their lives after an explosion on the semi-submersible drilling on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig working on the Macondo exploration well for BP in the Gulf of Mexico. The well blowout and subsequent oil spill pumped 3.2 million barrels into the Gulf of Mexico the biggest marine disaster in US history. The fire burned for 36 hours before the rig sank, and the hydrocarbons leaked into the Gulf of Mexico before the well was closed and sealed. After the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, a sea-floor oil

On April 20th, the Deepwater Horizon oilrig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded and sank, 11 people died in the explosion. Five days after the explosion, underwater cameras revealed that the British Petroleum (BP) pipeline, connecting the oilrig to the underwater well, had ruptured and was leaking 3.19 million barrels (over 130 million gallons) of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The pipeline was finally capped 87 days later on June 15, 2010. The five states that were affected by the spill are Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. This is considered the worst accidental oil spill in history.

The worst environmental disaster America ever faced is the Gulf oil spill which released an approximately of 171 million gallons of oil. Scientists estimate that approximately half of all the oil and nearly 100 percent of the methane gas released from the well stayed within the deep ocean. Estimates of the amount of oil spilling into the Gulf climbed steadily between April and June. The first estimate was 1,000 barrels a day. As of mid-June, that estimate had reached between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels a day. The resulting oil slick covered more than 2,500 square miles, but had largely dissolute by August. It’s estimated that a total of 4.9 million barrels of oil, or 205.8 gallons, leaked from the well of which only 800,000 barrels have been

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

The BP Oil Spill An Introductory Background - One of the most controversial ecological disasters in recent history focused on multinational British Petroleum and their Gulf of Mexico Operations. The Deepwater Oil Disaster began on April 20, 2010 with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon Oil platform, killing 11, injuring 17. It was not until July 15th, however, that the leak was stopped by capping the wellhead, after releasing almost 5 million barrels (206 million gallons) of crude oil, or 53,000 barrels per day into the Gulf of Mexico. It was not until September 19th that the relief well process was complete and the U.S. Government, EPA, and Coast Guard agencies declared the well breach effectively stopped (Cavnar, 2010).

Deepwater Horizon oil Spill: BP’s drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico had an explosion in April 2010, causing the “largest oil spill catastrophe in the petroleum industry history”. It caused the death of 11 men and injury to several others. “More than 150,000 barrels of crude oil gushed into the sea, every day, for almost 5 months and up to 68,000 square miles of the Gulf 's surface were covered” (1).