On April 20, 2010, British Petroleum’s (BP) offshore drilling rig, the Deepwater Horizon, exploded and caused the largest accidental marine oil spill in history, discharging five million barrels of oil into the ocean over a period of three months. During this accident, eleven men working on the oil rig perished and seventeen others were injured severely. This crisis caused major destruction to marine wildlife caused economic harm on fishing and tourism industries and was a public relations nightmare for British Petroleum (Crandall, Parnell & Spillan, 2013). This event was horrendous; I remember the devastation that was left in the wake of this tragedy.
Beginning in the 1980’s, offshore oil production showed to be a solution for the United States’ energy issues and national security. In the beginning, the wells were in shallow water, but once these wells were dry, drilling in the deeper water began. Although there were drawbacks, such as the difficulty to drill and operate a well at such tremendous depths and because of these depths robots would have to troubleshoot maintenance problems instead of humans. Additionally, in deep waters, special drilling rigs are needed. There are two types of drilling rigs, the drillship, and the semi-submersible. The Deepwater Horizon was a semi-submersible rig that was used to excavate the well on the Macondo slope in the Gulf of Mexico. Once the excavation was done, another rig would arrive to extract the oil. Companies like British
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.
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.
On April 20, 2010 there was an explosion in a drilling rig that was operated and owned by Transocean. The drilling rig’s official name was “Deepwater Horizon Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit” and was in the process of drilling oil in the Macondo Propect oil field, located 40 miles off the Louisiana southeast coast. The cause was reported as a “Wellhead blowout” which cause the rig to explode, dumping more than 200 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and resulting in 11 casualties.
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
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster that took place in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 is the largest oil spill to have ever occurred in USA waters. As efforts to hold the current spill continues, the higher chances of clean up damage compensation technique, and also enhancing prevention of future oil spill responses and recovery. The rig was owned and under the operation of Transocean, a Switzerland-based offshore drilling firm, and leased to BP plc, one of the biggest oil firms in the world. The explosion and fire that led to eleven fatalities and several injuries took place despite specialized oil spill prevention equipment also known as a blowout preventer, which is designed to avert such a kind of disaster. The quantity
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
“This is probably the largest environmental disaster we have ever faced in this country. It is certainly the biggest oil spill and we are responding with the biggest environmental response.” stated Carol Browner, Barack Obama's advisor on energy and climate.The offshore drilling industry has made tremendous technological strides since first freestanding structure,. for drilling was built in 1937 in the Gulf of Mexico in 14 feet of water, and more than a mile offshore. Therefore, ten years later, the first well from which oil is being produced located out of sight of land was drilled from a fixed platform off the Louisiana coast. On April 20, 2010, the deepwater horizon offshore drilling rig exploded in the gulf of Mexico. Due to the B.P Oil Spill, people who depend on oil for energy and gas had a struggle. Why the B.P Oil spill happened, what happened during the spill, and the aftermath/effects of the spill are very noticeable
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.
On April 20, 2010, 11 men died, and dozens more were injured (Hoffman, 2010). A horrific disaster happened on the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling platform where an explosion on the rig killed 11 workers and led to over 4 million barrels of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico, one of the largest oil spills in history (Hoffman, 2010). The oil company BP did many things wrong both before and after this devastating disaster. BPs self-entitled, hubris CEO and Corporate lead to a historical trajectory for the crew of Transocean's Deepwater Horizon. BP had given a pathetic response to the disaster trying to make It seem that it was not as bad as it was, all to ensure it still made more money and its stakeholders were not unsettled by it.
Until the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the worst oil spill had been the Exxon Valdez spill in 1979. The Exxon Valdez spill also took place in the Gulf of Mexico and dumped around 190 million less gallons of oil than the BP oil spill. The first cleanup barge did not reach the site for 14 hours and by then, nearly 1,100 miles of shoreline had been covered in oil. This was the first oil spill that was responsible for the eye-opening controversy over the safety of deepwater oil rigs. With that being said, the impact of the BP oil spill is still in existence today. The economy suffered tremendously in the Gulf areas. The oil spill on the fisheries industry could total $8.7 billion by 2020, including the un-employment of 22,000 jobs. The spill was also a huge blow to the ecosystem on a global scale. Endangered sea turtles that had usually migrated to the Gulf from Mexico, South America and West Africa died in the spill. Bottlenose dolphins living in Barataria Bay, Louisiana had a 63% lower reproductive season compared to other dolphin species following the oil spill. Finally, the deep-water coral reefs were almost wiped out over an area three times larger than Manhattan. The results of the oil spill are not always readily visible for us to clearly see, but that doesn’t mean that they still don’t exist to this day. Additionally, it has been seven years since the oil spill and until 2015, the future of the two BP employees in charge of the rig at the time of the spill was unknown. However, on 3 December 2015, US federal prosecutors dropped the manslaughter charges against Donald Vidrine and Robert Kaluza, who were the two rig supervisors on the day of Deepwater Horizon explosion. This ended the United States pursuit of criminal charges over the BP employees. But, “The two supervisors still have to face allegations
There were a number of causes for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, most of which had more to do with the human element that with any technology itself. The four biggest ways that humans contributed to the disaster, as explained by journalist David Coburn, was the fact that British Petroleum’s (BP) past success built a sense of complacency, the shifting the burden of proof, the normalization of deviance and the fact that promoters for an industry also serve as that industry’s regulatory enforcers.
BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil well, located 5,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, leaked millions of barrels of crude oil into Gulf Coast, having a devastating negative impact on Gulf Coast communities, wetlands,
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).
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).