Oil Industry

When oil was first discovered it was “Discovered of the spindle top oilfield near Beaumont in January 10, 1901 marked the opening of the prosperous phase of the business in Texas.” But not long after discovering in Texas it would soon be discovered in Oklahoma in 1905. Shortly after 1910 more oil was being founded and more was coming out of Texas. By the end of the Progressive Era in 1920’s “Texas was producing 85,000,000 barrels per year with even more dramatic increase

In 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, causing millions of barrels of crude oil to be leaked out into the Gulf of Mexico. The extensive oil spill created a lot of pollution and far-reaching effects on the tourism industry. The resultant damage to marine wildlife such as fish will continue to be felt for many years to come. Weeks after the event, and while it was still in progress, the Deep Water Horizon oil spill was being discussed as a disaster that will impact global economies, markets, and mining policies. The potential consequences included structural shifts in energy policy, insurance marketplaces and risk assessment, and financial liabilities to be incurred by BP. The law that affected the operation of BP’s business was the Clean Water Act, which regulates the discharge of pollutants in US’s waters (EPA, 2008). Following the oil spill, regulations have been put in place to regulate oil drilling operations. The Obama administration proposed new regulations on offshore oil and gas drilling. The regulation focused on oil and gas drilling companies to use stronger blowout Preventers that have the capability to close an offshore well in case a drilling breach occurred accidentally.

In Texas, there is an economic powerhouse that not only runs deep beneath fields of cotton, but also reaches miles beyond the green pastures of cattle. Its multitude of uses in daily life also far outweighs the benefits of technology. This resource, greater than any other in Texas, is oil. In 1866 the first commercial oil well was dug near Nacogdoches, Texas but unfortunately the well came up dry. Thirty years later in 1894 oil was discovered in Corsicana, Texas by accident while a water well was being dug. This was the first economically significant discovery of oil in Texas. On January 10, 1901, Texas was catapulted into the era of oil and gas with the discovery at Spindletop. The Spindletop well, located south of Beaumont produced roughly

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.

In the beginning of the 20th century Texas discovered a major economic game changer. In January of 1901 in Spindletop, Texas oil was discovered in the form of a 100-foot geyser. Little did Texans know that their lives and economic situation would be changed forever. Right after the discovery most of the early profits made from oil went to easterners. When the 1920’s came around oil became a major economic engine. Causing major social changes in job opportunities, education, marriage, and sports.

Hundreds upon thousands of millionaires, new cities and towns, and a plethora of jobs are birthed out of one black goo. Oil. Ever since January of 1901, oil has been spewing out of hundreds of oil rigs all over Texas, bringing cities and people with them. Oil changed Texas from a place with very few cities to a place with cities all over. The oil would be found in a remote place and within the month 2000 people would live there, hoping to get rich from oil.

In an article posted by CNN, it is revealed that "BP was ruled responsible for the release of 3.1 million barrels" (Griffin et al). The process of removing the oil is in progress, but there is still a magnitude of oil to be cleaned up. This disaster did not only affect the environment, but it also affected the workers involved. It is also mentioned in the article that eleven workers died. The disaster affected the lives of many people other than the oil rig workers, however. There have been some concerns about the quality of seafood being produced from the area, along with the health effects it had on the community. The New England Journal of Medicine mentions in their article that " Louisiana reported 415 self-identified health problems believed to be related to the Gulf oil spill" (Goldstein et al). The oil spill has had a profound effect on the gulf coast community and will continue to for many years to come. Hopefully, this horrible event can be a lesson for the future, so that more precautions are taken to benefit nature and

to find ways out by stating that they are not the ones responsible for these

Cross, L. (2014, March 9). Trends and Challenges for the Oil and Gas Industry | Stout Risius Ross. Retrieved November 10, 2014, from http://www.srr.com/article/trends-and-challenges-oil-and-gas-industry.

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

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded. It was positioned over the Macondo oil well when a burst of natural gas broke through the concrete core that had been used to seal off the oil well for later use. Once released by the fractured core the gas made its way up the riser and onto the platform, where it ignited killing eleven workers and injuring seventeen others. The highest-ranking BP supervisors on board the oil rig known as “Well site leaders” observed indications that the well was not secure, but did not take appropriate actions in order to remedy the problem. If the supervisors had done something, they may have been able to save the eleven lives lost that day. A similar accident happened to the Caspian Sea at another BP oil well in September 2008. Both cores were too weak to withstand the pressure because the concrete mixture contained Nitrogen gas used to accelerate the curing process (Brennan, 2013). Two days later the rig capsized and in the process knocked over the riser they had filled with drilling mud in order to stop the flow of gas and oil. Now with nothing holding it back the oil, it began pouring out of the hole. The oil that was being released everyday peaked at around 60,000 barrels of oil in one day. The well discharged oil for eighty-seven days before their attempts to repair the hole were successful. In the end, nearly five million barrels of oil were released into the Gulf of Mexico.

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.

April 20, 2010 has gone down in the history books as the day that the most horrific oil spill in history happened. British Petroleum’s leased offshore drilling rig exploded on this day. The Deepwater Horizon caused the largest accidental marine oil spill ever (Crandall, Parnell and Spillan, 2013). The ruptured oil well leaked nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the sea over a three month period of time. The devastation killed eleven men. 17 others were severely injured. The devastation reached marine wildlife and some 5 years later, that group is still feeling the after affects.

On April 20, the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico led to the largest accidental release of oil into marine waters in history. As a result, a huge loss of money and life was caused and affected serious environmental damage to wild animals and water pollution. BP was accused of their irresponsibility that it took 87 days before the well was closed and sealed. BP’s shares

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).