Oil Pollution Act

The oil spills of the3 late 80’s, enlivened basic authoritative change, the OPA 90 law, and a historic point case on corrective harms in the Supreme Court of the USA. The USA chose to build up its own administration to manage incidental oil contamination of the oceans as opposed to joining the worldwide law administration. The global law administration, which is less thorough than the US law, covering just delivering oil slicks, has worked sensibly well concerning over 140 occurrences of oil contamination in the course of recent years. The US law and the universal administration contrast above all as for two disputable issues unadulterated monetary misfortune harms and common asset harms. The Deepwater Horizon oil debacle in the Gulf of Mexico will test the OPA 90 American law. The Deepwater Horizon case will last many many years and will probably deliver point of interest decisions in the range of marine contamination. Each administration has been conceived to a great extent self-governing. In any case, near study and assessment of the two administrations is educational and helpful. Each administration may take in and advantage from the experience of the other.

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.

How does something like an oil spill even happen? There is a long list of reasons of why this could happen. A common reason is a careless mistake that could've been avoided. There has been cases where oil tanker ships have actually ran into other ships which caused the tanker to leak oil into the surrounding waters. For example, in 2014 750 barrels of crude oil was leaked into the Lower Mississippi River because a tanker ran into a towboat. Another very common way oil spills happen are through and machine malfunction or explosion. This is what happened in the BP Deepwater oil spill. A explosion damaged one of the rigs and they completely lost all ability to control the rig. The fire burned for over 36 hours until the rig sank.

Americans have been drilling for oil for more than half of their existence. Before the 1850’s oil was of little use and had no market for commerce as there was not one overwhelming use for it. Until around the 1850’s, when technology advanced, with it sparking search for one of the most sought after natural resources that countries would later go to war over, petroleum oil. Early inventions like the kerosene lamp provided a new stable home necessity to live by, increasing the demand for crude oil. This would be met in part by Colonel Edwin Drake, who drilled the first successful oil well in 1858. While Drake’s invention for extracting crude oil from the ground would bring about a new era for industrialization, his “black gold” would bring about an even larger effect, the environmental disasters caused by man. For over one hundred and fifty years of drilling for oil, both on shore and offshore, has led to some of the worst catastrophes to both nature and mankind. While many of these catastrophes have led to the deaths of hundreds of crew members, they have also led to long lasting effects on the environment, local and national economies, legislation, regulations, and human morale. These following effects can be seen in the most recent and most contaminated marine oil spill in history. To the media and public it’s known as the British Petroleum offshore drilling oil spill in 2010.

The Oil Pollution Act was established in 1990 in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in March 1989. The Oil Pollution Act placed the Federal Government in charge of management and control of oil spills, control of containment, removal and clean up efforts. This law holds who ever is deemed responsible for the oil spill to pay for the damages, containment, and clean up of the oil spill. In accordance with OPA90, an oil spill must be reported to the Federal Government. Upon reporting the oil spill to the government, BP reported that the well was leaking 1,000 barrels a day when it was discharging upwards of 40,000 barrels a day. Every deep-water drilling company is required to have what is called a contingency plan. A contingency plan

The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) was amended to cover many different aspects of many parts of the amendment. Although the amendments covered multiple areas, the two most prominent were funding to respond more efficiently, and embrace the scope of the damage for reimbursement after the recovery process.

The United States Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 which prevents any vessel that has caused an oil spill of more than 1 million US gallons in any marine area,

A major problem in the world, especially the U.S. is oil spills, they have been spilled into the oceans are being very harmful to water life plants and animals. In addition birds and other air breathing mammals also get poisoned, as they go to bathe themselves sit in the oil and that poison them. Oil is one of the most used natural resource that people use, and oil is used by a lot of the population of the world. Oil is a fossilization made up from plants and animals very many years ago, it takes many years for oil to be formed, oil can be located both in the ground or under the ocean floor, after the oil is removed giant ships called oil tankers, ship the oil to the other countries. In addition birds and other air breathing mammals also get

BP Exploration and Production, Inc. (BP) (defendant) and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (Anadarko) (defendant) co-leased oil and gas rights in the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) and co-owned a producing well on the leasehold. A blowout occurred in the well while Deepwater Horizon, a mobile offshore-drilling unit (MODU) owned by Transocean (defendant), was engaged in drilling operations on the well. Deepwater Horizon broke off the well and sank. As a result, oil flowed from the well, through what remained of the riser that had connected the well to Deepwater Horizon, and into the Gulf. The United States government (plaintiff) sought to impose joint and several liability on all defendants under the Oil Pollution Act (OPA), 33 U.S.C. §§ 2701-04, for the

For instance, Rufe, who is a scientist, states that we have not developed an approach that can clean more than 3 to 5 percent of the spilled oil” (Mufson, 2012). Furthermore, In the Gulf of Mexico, although 205.8 million gallons of oil have been spilled, just 51.8 million gallons have been collected, which equals approximately 25 percent. Moreover, in order to clean the Gulf from the oil spills almost 2 million gallons of toxic dispersants were used. Unfortunately, the toxic dispersants did not truly purify the spilled oil, but fractured them into tinier particles. As a consequence, that may make the oil more harmful for some ocean animals and plants ( A Center for Biological Diversity Report, 2008). However, with the increasing of offshore oil drilling accidents, and with no solution to solve the problem efficiently. The hazardous impact is not going to affect only on animals and plants. It might affect people who depend on the polluted area for food, ecological enrichment, and entertainment ( A Center for Biological Diversity Report,

Oil spills can happen anywhere and anytime. You don’t really hear about them when they happen, because some people don’t think they’re a big deal. They can be prevented if oil companies didn’t use old pipes that’s been there for years. The state of Peru has brought in this oil company called Petroperu. When they were brought in they told the Indigenous people “with oil, you and Peru will grow.” Since then the Oil company has spilled tons of crude oil in the Amazon river contaminating communities water and food supply.

Literature suggest that the essential management practices to follow when responding to an Oil Spill is to dispose of oil spill debris with the aim of

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).

Since the past few decades, owning a car has become a necessity in order to commute from one place to another. However, cars do not work automatically, they require fuel. Since the past decade, the petroleum industry has become one of the leading industries impacting the nation’s economy. Oil has become an essential commodity as it is utilized in transportation vehicles, serves as a raw material for manufacturing plastics, and is utilized in homes for cooking. America’s economy is greatly dependent on petroleum as it is the “black gold” of the nation. The considerable significance of oil has led to the drilling of it, which is not only limited to land, but also the oceans. Offshore drilling is a method in which petroleum is extracted from underneath the seabed. It is one of the significant technological advancements in the past few decades. However, the ones who are involved in the process of offshore oil production are humans, and humans tend to make mistakes. In 1969, due to a human error, an oil spill occurred and natural gas, oil, and mud shot up the well and oozed into the ocean (“Offshore Drilling”). The oil spilled led to an environmental disaster which killed thousands of marine animals and distorted the environment. In order to prevent the same error, the government passed a moratorium in 1981, banning more than 85 percent of the country’s oil drilling sites (“Offshore Drilling”). The moratorium restricted the United States to mass-produce its natural resource.

Oil spills can impact the environment greatly. Since the oil boats are on the ocean if the break and start to leak it goes into the ocean where it can harm the ocean and those that make their home in it. “That spill caused an immediate and significant impact to the ecosystem, with sightings of birds and turtles washed up on beaches covered with oil, as well as an increase in the deaths of other marine life” (Sinclair, 2017). The oil spill in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico was the biggest since Deepwater Horizon. It caused harm to the ecosystem around it because technology came in so it could pump oil out of the ground under the ocean. There is no way to know the impact that oil spill and really every oil spill has had on the marine ecosystem.