What Happened At The Macondo Well

On the afternoon of January 28, 1969, a terrible environmental disaster occurred when a well blowout on the Union Oil Company platform A, causing one of the largest oil spill in the United States. The platform was located in Summerland Oil Field pier which 6 miles east of city of Santa Barbara. Riggers desperately tried to repair the well before oil started spreading to the shoreline. Needless to say, the effects of the oil spill sparked outrage from the local community and the media that inevitably caused ecological effects, safety and ethical concerns. It took oil workers a total of 11 days to cap the ruptured pipe, while an estimated 3 million gallons of poisonous black crude oil showered the Pacific Ocean. Sadly, oceans

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

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico occurred because “oil from the well shot up and out of the drill column under high pressure, extended on the drilling rig and exploded (wikipedia)”. The rig set on fire and later sank. BP, Transocean, along with government agency employer, all worked hard to avoid further spread of the oil.

The Bp Deepwater Horizon accident was a problem associated with both faulty process safety culture. The disaster that took place could have been prevented if BP would have been committed to safety first. On January 11, 2011, a seven-member commission published a full report detailing the causes of the blow-out. This blow-out killed 11 men and leaked 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf. Bob Graham, commission co-chairman, stated that the incident would not have happened if the government regulators would have held BP responsible for world-class safety standards. His findings were critical to the civil lawsuit filed by the United States Justice Department against Transocean, BP, and other companies involved in the spill. Graham demanded

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been recognized as the one of the worst environmental disasters, if not the worst, in U.S. history. On April 20, 2010, an offshore oil rig leased by British Petroleum’s (BP) in the Gulf of Mexico exploded in a ball of flames on, killing 11 employees. While much of the nation was riveted by the attempts to cap the mile-deep well, the hidden tragedy was the cloud of tens of millions of barrels oil that was slowly creeping toward land. BP and others would work for over a year to clean up the beaches and wetlands affected by the spilled oil. The impact of this was felt by costal wildlife and those who made their business working in the Gulf and along the shore.

Oil is one of the most precious substances on Earth. It takes millions of years to form and has many applications throughout the world. Offshore oil drilling in the coastal waters of the United States is a technique used by companies to extract the oil buried deep beneath the ocean floor. Many people refer to the ways that offshore drilling will help the economy, both locally and globally, but despite the apparent benefits, the process is not without controversy. Oilrigs produce wastes which affect marine life and the associated fishing industry, and they pose a danger to the employees who operate them. Because of these consequences, the United States should look to restrict offshore oil drilling.

The Deepwater horizon rig, owned by Transocean, an offshore-oil-drilling company that was leased by the BP oil company was located in the Macondo oil prospect in the Mississippi canyon. On April 20, 2010 Natural gas broke through a poorly constructed concrete core and traveled up to the platform where, once ignited, ruptured into an explosion. There were eleven fatalities and seventeen of the rigs workers were injured. Due to a malfunction in the rigs blowout preventer, which is supposed to close the oil channel, oil was spilled directly into the Gulf of Mexico when the rig capsized and sank, rupturing a riser. “A 2014 report by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board claimed that the blind shear rams,” giant blades that are supposed to cut through the pipe to help seal it, “had activated sooner than previously thought and may have actually punctured the pipe” (Britannica, 2015) Though many attempts were made to seal the well, it was not successfully sealed until September 19. Meaning oil was leaking into the waters of the Gulf of

There are many reasons as to why offshore oil drilling is a good thing. Firstly, offshore oil drilling is good because it is an energy source throughout the world. In addition, oil is a necessity in which people use in their everyday lives. Oil is directly responsible for about 2.5% of the world’s GDP (gross domestic product), but accounts for one third of humanity’s primary energy supply. Including natural gas, oil would account for over half of humanities primary energy supply (forbes.com). For example, oil/gas

    At some point in our daily activities, we all draw upon a reserve of one or more of earth's natural resources, One of the most crucial of these being crude oil. It and its derivatives are used as primary sources of energy and thus, crude oil it is constantly in high demand. In order to meet this demand in the most economical fashion, oil companies have made offshore drilling into a common practice. However, offshore drilling is devastating to the environment in several ways. As a result of the equipment and methods used to extract the oil, high levels of pollution are released into the ocean, disturbing nearby ecosystems. Secondly, the high level of drilling is consistently

Thesis: I wish to share this information with you all today because it is up to us to end offshore drilling. If we all became more knowledgeable on the ramifications of offshore drilling, we could better know how to avoid it. I firstly want to address the significant environmental impacts of drilling, second the alternative we can employ instead of drilling, and lastly how we can try and prevent the same thing from happening in the future. I chose this topic because it is vital to the health of our planet’s oceans and the well-being of wildlife and humans. I conducted my research through online and academic means.

Rig of the drilling Deep-water Horizon operated under British petroleum failed in its operation sinking below the seawater of the Gulf of Mexico on the 20th of April 2010. More than 11 workers lost their lives. After this incident, tons and tons of oil gushed from the main opening of the well, buried 1600 meters below the sea level.

One of the main issues of offshore drilling is the damaging effect that it has on our environment. “Something that many people do not know is that when oil is drilled from the ocean floor, oil is not the only thing that comes up. Mercury, arsenic, and lead are also brought up and are let back into the waters of the ocean” (Negative Effects of Offshore Drilling). At first glance, people may think that offshore drilling is just the drilling into the ocean floor to get petroleum. However, the actual process creates various complications that may lead to amplified and widespread negative effects. This is a serious problem to the sea life that inhabits those waters because all three of those chemicals can be very deadly. With bio-magnification, the ppm count these chemicals can reach high concentrations in large

Since the year 2000, there have been numerous reports of oil spills, gas leaks, and explosions caused by these different types of industries and refineries. According to a report by Tony Iallonardo in 2010, “Oil Disasters in Last Decade.” “From 2000 to 2010, the oil and gas industry accounted for hundreds of deaths, explosions, fires, seeps, and spills as well as habitat, and wildlife destruction in the United States”. In 2010, there was a major oil spill that almost everyone is familiar with, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, also called the BP oil disaster. This accident dumped around 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, making it one of the largest marine oil spill in the world. Both the spill and the cleanup efforts had extreme negative, and deadly effects on the environment and human life. On earthjustice.org “Oil Refineries Required to Reduce Toxic Pollution into the Air Communities Breathe” it states a way to correct this is by, “curtailing the expansion of offshore drilling through a series of lawsuits and forcing federal agencies to do their jobs with companies like BP.” The lager oil company’s drill recklessly anywhere in the world without an adequate plan to handle small oil leaks much less lager scale ones. Industry and electric power producers release millions of harmful

Offshore drilling can be harmful to the environment around it. Some people are concerned that offshore drilling can cause oil spills. An oil spill is when oil leaks to the environment. When an oil

“Since 1975 offshore drilling has had a 99.999 percent safety record”(Horton). While the chances seem very slim for an incident to happen that harms the ecosystem it still happens more than you think. “There will be no less than one spill a year of 1,000 barrels… a spill of 10,000 or more can be expected every three to four years”(Horton). And for the high safety rate of 99.999 percent of success and safety it isn’t as good as it can be. “While the 99.999 percent safety record sounds nice that 0.001 percent can be pretty horrific for people living there”(Horton).