What happened at the deepwater horizon oil spill
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill also referred to as the BP oil spill , oil leak , or oil disaster ; the Gulf of Mexico oil spill ; and the Macondo blowout was an industrial disaster that began on April 20, , in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP -operated Macondo Prospect , [6] [7] [8] [9] considered to be the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry and estimated to be 8 percent to 31 percent larger in volume than the previous largest, the Ixtoc I oil spill , also in the Gulf of Mexico. The U. A massive response ensued to protect beaches, wetlands and estuaries from the spreading oil utilizing skimmer ships, floating booms , controlled burns and 1. Numerous investigations explored the causes of the explosion and record-setting spill. Government report, published in September , pointed to defective cement on the well, faulting mostly BP, but also rig operator Transocean and contractor Halliburton.
Deepwater Horizon a decade on: What happened in the infamous oil spill
All rights reserved. Smoke rises from surface oil being burned by cleanup crews in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April The BP oil spill of started suddenly, explosively, and with deadly force.
As a crew on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig worked to close up an exploratory oil well deep under the Gulf of Mexico, a pulse of gas shot up, buckling the drill pipe. The leak pumped out 12 times more oil than the Exxon Valdez spill of Coast Guard fire boats crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon on April 21, near New Orleans.
An estimated 1, barrels of oil a day were still leaking into the Gulf at the time. But 10 years and billions of dollars in cleanup efforts later, many of the same risks that allowed the disaster to occur remain.
And in some ways, more is known now than ever before about the Gulf and how the spill affected its ecosystems. About 17 percent of the U. Pipelines—26, miles of them—connect wells to the processing infrastructure that lines the coast.
Before plummeting demand from the coronavirus pandemic drove already-low oil prices lower, the Gulf of Mexico was producing as much crude oil as it had in years. But conditions on the Deepwater Horizon rig were particularly concerning. After the spill, the commission created by the Obama administration to investigate the spill reached stark, damning conclusions.
Many lapses in safety had contributed to the disaster , many of which traced back to a culture both within BP and the industry more broadly that did not value safety enough. A new agency, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement BSEE , was created to track and enforce offshore drilling safety issues, something that had been handled by the same agency that approved leases to oil companies.
BSEE announced a new set of safety rules for offshore operations in Among those rules was one that required blowout protectors—the piece that had failed at Deepwater Horizon—to be inspected by a third party, rather than self-certified by the drilling companies. But many of those rules, as well as other safety practices put in place after the disaster, have been weakened in recent years. Most notably, in the Trump administration finalized rollbacks of several components of the rules, including the independent safety certification for blowout protectors and bi-weekly testing.
Today, more than 50 percent of Gulf oil production comes from ultra-deep wells drilled in 4, feet or more of water, compared with about 4, feet for Deepwater Horizon. The deeper the well, the more the risk: A study showed that for every hundred feet deeper a well is drilled, the likelihood of a company self-reported incident like a spill or an injury increased by more than 8 percent. After the Exxon Valdez spill, for example, new laws and regulations were enacted to deal with future tanker spills.
Another concern, says Scott Eustis, the science director at the Louisiana-based Healthy Gulf, a group that focuses on marine protection, comes from the ever-increasing pressures of climate change. Louisiana, which has the most comprehensive climate adaptation plan in the region, is expecting the number and intensity of major hurricanes to increase within the next 50 years. Each storm that blows through the Gulf threatens offshore drilling infrastructure.
But scientists realized they lacked much of the basic background science necessary to predict where, when, and how the oil would spread or what its impacts on the region would be. At first, it was difficult even to assess how much oil spilled from the well. Early initial assessments were low—but satellite imagery revealed that there was much more oil than had been reported. The final tally showed that the spill dumped more than million gallons of oil.
Oil continued to sink to the ocean floor for more than a year, a recent study shows. It changed the amounts of sediment collecting on the bottom of the sea for years afterward and choked them of oxygen. Immediately after the spill, the 1, miles of contaminated coasts saw oil concentrations times higher than background levelsl even eight years later , concentrations were 10 times higher than before the spill.
And In February of this year, a study showed that the footprint of the oil spread some 30 percent wider than previously estimated, potentially contaminating many more fish communities than previously thought.
Studies are also showing that reef fish changed drastically after the spill; that fish absorbed some of the oil-sourced contaminants ; and that ecological communities throughout the water column, from tiny bacteria to deep sea corals to arthropods , could take decades to recover. Read about how the effects of the spill are still reverberating in dolphins. Read about how pelican habitat on the Louisiana coast is being restored after the spill.
The paradoxical effect of the spill is that scientists know more about the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the physics, ecology, and chemistry of oil spills, than they ever would have otherwise. It was clear from the moment the spill began that there were many basic science questions that were unknown about this area of the world, like ocean currents and wind patterns, knowledge gaps that hindered the recovery process.
For example, no high-resolution map of the seafloor existed, information that would have helped scientists understand where the bottom-dwelling creatures of the Gulf might be affected.
Driven by the disaster, federal scientists produced a map in In , it took days to get satellite images downloaded and processed; today the response time is about 20 minutes, he says. And other knowledge gaps also engender risk. For example, a hurricane triggered underwater landslides at another drilling site in the Gulf.
The mudslide broke the drilling rig away from the well, leaving it leaking hundreds of barrels a day. The spill drove a push in science and some changes in regulations, but the dangers of offshore drilling remain.
Read Caption. By Alejandra Borunda. Photograph by U. Coast Guard via Getty Images. Can this kind of spill happen again? A severely oiled brown pelican is rescued in Queen Bess Island, Louisiana, after the oil spill. Boats used absorbent booms to corral the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. A dead black drum fish floats through oiled waters in Grand Isle, Louisiana. The white sand beaches of Orange Beach, Alabama are covered with oil.
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Deepwater Horizon oil spill, also called Gulf of Mexico oil spill, largest marine oil spill in history, caused by an April 20, , explosion on the. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was an industrial disaster that began on April 20, , in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considered.
By Justin Mullins. The day before the accident, the crew had pumped cement to the bottom of the borehole, a standard procedure intended to prevent oil leaking out. On the day of the accident, the team were conducting checks to determine that that the well had been properly sealed. The cement at the bottom of the borehole did not create a seal, and oil and gas began to leak through it into the pipe leading to the surface.
Work on the well had been performed just before the explosion by Halliburton.
All rights reserved. Smoke rises from surface oil being burned by cleanup crews in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April The BP oil spill of started suddenly, explosively, and with deadly force.
Ten years after the Deepwater Horizon, new spills seem imminent
We have recently upgraded our technology platform. Due to this change if you are seeing this message for the first time please make sure you reset your password using the Forgot your password Link. About 4. It is regarded as the largest marine oil spill in history, having contaminated about 68, square miles of the Gulf, killing 11 crew members and leaving a devastating impact on the thousands of species that inhabited the surrounding waters. The oil well was located more than 18, feet below sea level and operated in water depths of up to 5, feet. Most workers were rescued by lifeboats or helicopters, but 11 crew members were not found, and were later judged to have died in the aftermath of the explosion.
Deepwater Horizon – BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
Jump to navigation. On April 20, , an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon Macondo oil well drilling platform tragically killed 11 workers, and started the largest marine oil spill in U. NOAA was on the scene from the earliest moments of the crisis, bringing more than 25 years of experience protecting and restoring our coasts from oil spills. As the lead science agency for coastal oil spills, NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration provided mission-critical information to guide the emergency response, the natural resources damage assessment and the restoration plan. NOAA scientists continue their commitment to the Gulf as we report on the short and long term effects to the fish, wildlife and habitat injured by the spill, as well as the lost recreational use along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, and Florida. On April 4, , the court approved a settlement with BP for natural resource injuries stemming from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This settlement concludes the largest natural resource damage assessment ever undertaken. We will now begin implementing restoration as laid out in the Trustees' comprehensive restoration plan. Incident News.
Jeff Brady. After the Deepwater Horizon accident a capping stack like this one had to be built to stop the flow of oil.
Fossil fuels , Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Robots attempt to repair the Macondo Well's blowout preventer during the Deepwater Horizon spill. Credit: BP.
The Environmental Impact of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
The consequences of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico extended beyond the 11 fatalities and 17 injuries suffered that day. The 4 million barrels of crude oil that spilled into the ocean over the ensuing 3 months also carried a significant environmental impact, some of which is still being felt today. Below is a brief look at those environmental impacts that resulted from the explosion aboard the oil rig Deepwater Horizon on April 20, , which left an oil slick on the surface of the ocean miles wide. PAH, or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, is a chemical that is carcinogenic in high concentrations and can interfere with biological processes. PAH was found up to 8 miles from the wreckage site and was later found to be causing cardiac arrest in fish. Additionally, pockets of methane led to oxygen-starved zones, which caused marine life to smother. Large numbers of fish kills in the area were reported. Prior to the spill, only about 0. Pregnant dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico were found to have a higher incidence of in-utero infections, fetal issues, and late-term pregnancy failures. In fact, in the 6 years following the spill, over stillborn and stranded juvenile dolphins have been found in Gulf waters, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Effects were not limited to species who made their home in the water. According to the Audubon Society, over 1 million birds died as a result of the disaster. Oil inhibits birds' ability to maintain body warmth, and many were found on shore still alive and seeking shelter.
The eight failures that caused the Gulf oil spill
The explosion and subsequent fire resulted in the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon and the deaths of 11 workers; 17 others were injured. The same blowout that caused the explosion also caused an oil well fire and a massive offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico , considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the world, and the largest environmental disaster in U. It was owned by Transocean, operated under the Marshalese flag of convenience , and was under lease to BP until September Once the cementing was complete, it was due to be tested for integrity and a cement plug set to temporarily abandon the well. The rig owner, Transocean, had a "strong overall" safety record with no major incidents for 7 years. Industry surveys saw this as an effect of its November merger with rival GlobalSantaFe. Transocean "has had problems" previously with both cement seals and blowout preventers , which are the suspected cause of the Deepwater Horizon loss, although Transocean states that cementing is a third party task and that it has "a strong maintenance program to keep blowout preventers working". In and , the surveys ranked Transocean last among deep-water drillers for "job quality" and second to last in 'overall satisfaction'. For three years before the merger, Transocean was the leader or near the top in both measures. Transocean ranked first in and in a category that gauges its in-house safety and environmental policies.
