Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
The largest marine oil spill in United States history began on April 20, 2010, with an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon offshore oilrig in the Gulf of Mexico. Millions of barrels of oil flowed into the water over the next 87 days, much of which washed up on shore along the Gulf coast region of the United States and Mexico. The accident was the result of numerous shortcuts undertaken by BP, and resulted in both environmental destruction and legal action. The events of the accident, the extensive corrective action undertaken by various government agencies, and the numerous violations, eventually issued as Incidents of Non-Compliance (INC), which were sent to BP, Transocean, and Halliburton, will be explored. …show more content…
According to these authors, there were two separate parts to the accident, a blowout, followed by the complete destruction of the oilrig, during which 11 people lost their lives. Ideally, the Deepwater Horizon should have been able to survive a blowout, but every single defense system failed, including crew training. Barstow, Rohde, and Saul (2010) note that the Macondo well had fallen behind schedule from the beginning, and the Deepwater Horizon rig had been sent into order to drill quickly. On the morning of April 20, crews were performing a negative pressure test, which resulted in oil and gas seeping into the well. Eventually, a significant amount of oil and gas, perhaps hundreds of barrels worth, moved up the well past the Deepwater Horizon’s blowout preventer. This material pushed its way up the riser pipe to the rig itself, resulting in a significant …show more content…
Three days later, the Coast Guard set fire to patches of spilled oil in an effort to prevent the spill from reaching Louisiana wetlands. However, oil began appearing in these environmentally vulnerable areas the next day. A second BP effort on May 8 to contain the well failed, as did a 26-29 May effort to top kill the well, or plug it with drilling mud. It was on June 4 that BP was able to install a lower marine riser cap, which allowed for leaking gas and oil to be collected by surface vessels. Additionally, BP (2015) notes that 6,500 vessels and 2,500 miles of boom were used in an attempt to contain the oil from reaching the shore
The largest marine oil spill in United States history began on April 20, 2010, with an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon offshore oilrig in the Gulf of Mexico. Millions of barrels of oil flowed into the water over the next 87 days, much of which washed up on shore along the Gulf coast region of the United States and Mexico. The accident was the result of numerous shortcuts undertaken by BP, and resulted in both environmental destruction and legal action. The events of the accident, the extensive corrective action undertaken by various government agencies, and the numerous violations, eventually issued as Incidents of Non-Compliance (INC), which were sent to BP, Transocean, and Halliburton, will be explored. …show more content…
According to these authors, there were two separate parts to the accident, a blowout, followed by the complete destruction of the oilrig, during which 11 people lost their lives. Ideally, the Deepwater Horizon should have been able to survive a blowout, but every single defense system failed, including crew training. Barstow, Rohde, and Saul (2010) note that the Macondo well had fallen behind schedule from the beginning, and the Deepwater Horizon rig had been sent into order to drill quickly. On the morning of April 20, crews were performing a negative pressure test, which resulted in oil and gas seeping into the well. Eventually, a significant amount of oil and gas, perhaps hundreds of barrels worth, moved up the well past the Deepwater Horizon’s blowout preventer. This material pushed its way up the riser pipe to the rig itself, resulting in a significant …show more content…
Three days later, the Coast Guard set fire to patches of spilled oil in an effort to prevent the spill from reaching Louisiana wetlands. However, oil began appearing in these environmentally vulnerable areas the next day. A second BP effort on May 8 to contain the well failed, as did a 26-29 May effort to top kill the well, or plug it with drilling mud. It was on June 4 that BP was able to install a lower marine riser cap, which allowed for leaking gas and oil to be collected by surface vessels. Additionally, BP (2015) notes that 6,500 vessels and 2,500 miles of boom were used in an attempt to contain the oil from reaching the shore