Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Essay

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Damage April 20, 2010 began as a day of celebration, a day that marked 7 years without injury on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, and ended with 11 people dead, 78 days of oil flow, and 1,074 miles of the Gulf of Mexico contaminated. Three years after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill the beaches may appear clean but we have yet to see the final effects. BP, the company behind this tragedy, is still trying to clean up the mess they have created. This is a lot more complicated than it seems though. It all comes back to social responsibility- doing what is best for the company, the environment, the economy, and society as a whole. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill effected each of these and BP has had the huge task of
One concern was the cementing job on BP’s blown out Macondo Well. A day before the blow out a cement mixture was pumped into the well that was proven unsound multiple times in the weeks before the spill. BP made the decision to use this mixture anyways and then didn’t give it time to set or harden before they began using the well again. It was also found that BP decided to use six centralizers for the well instead of the recommended 21, which allowed hydrocarbons to reach the surface and contribute to the cause of the blowout (Thompson). BP was aware of all of these issues and had no plans to correct them before the spill. Researchers also found that the day of the spill workers may have ignored signs of high pressure in the well that should have been addressed. BP’s blowout preventer then failed because of a dead battery and a misplaced pipe. BP lacked a contingency plan for a disaster so large which caused the oil to leak for 87 days, while scientists tried to find a way to plug the well. A plan to stop the flow within a timelier manner should have been in place. All of these issues should have been addressed by BP and suggest social irresponsibility, specifically a lack of concern for the wellbeing of the environment from the very beginning