The explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, which British Petroleum operated, occurred on April 20, 2010, 80 km off the coast of Louisiana. According to various estimates, between 3.2 million and 4.9 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. The bp oil spill became the largest in US history and turned the accident into one of the biggest disasters due to the negative impact on the environment. You may know it by deepwater horizon oil spill movie or because of ecological education.
Leaking oil
Oil has been spilled into the Gulf, at least 5,000 barrels a day. The human disaster not only uncovered the most complex and most significant oil spill in US history, but also caused severe damage to marine and wildlife habitats due to years of leakage and damaging cleanup operations.
As the explosion, early reports and research show that the environmental impact of Deepwater Horizon is still unexpected, despite the apparent resilience of the regions. More information can be found at bp oil spill essays, where this topic is covered from many points of view. Such essay samples help to deepen the understanding of the issue.
The explosion
The oil rig was built and commissioned in 2001 and leased by British Petroleum. The platform has been operating and profitable for both owners and tenants for nine years. A terrible catastrophe put an end to a successful business. On April 20, 2010, a powerful explosion took place at the installation.
At that time, 126 workers were on the platform. Eleven of them went missing and were later pronounced dead. Another 17 were taken in critical condition to the nearest hospital. After two months of continuous work to eliminate the consequences of the disaster, there were reports of the death of two more people.
Approximately five million barrels of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico due to damage to pipes at 1,500 meters. The oil slick covered an area of 75,000 square kilometers.
Cleanup efforts
Oil spill cleanup expert Simon Boswell said that it’s enough to turn on the imagination by pouring some vegetable oil into a plastic water container. In this way, a situation similar to an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico can be simulated. Vegetable oil will rise to the water’s surface, forming small puddles of oil.
To accurately demonstrate BP’s process, you can take a tin can. It simulates a structure that looks like a giant funnel weighing 98 tons, topped with a dome. It is being built by several teams of welders who work, replacing each other, around the clock.
It is expected that the structure will be towed to the accident site. The funnel will cover the fracture site of the well through which the leak occurs and, as it were, protect it. In the future, the oil must be pumped out through the pipeline.
According to Boswell, such a design will intercept about 90% of the spilled oil, although some will still leak. According to experts, about 5,000 barrels of oil flow out of the damaged pipe every day. In this case, the leakage will be about 70 tons. Boswell believes that this is not so much. Nature will cope with such damage for some time.
Though the BP’s efforts, the cleanup efforts did not prevent oil from damaging the environment.
Aftermath and impact
The accident had a detrimental effect on the local ecosystem. The oil leak lasted 152 days. As a result, fishing was banned along the Gulf Coast, and thousands of dead animals were found on the shores in the following months.
Birds, sea turtles, fish, and even mammals died. About a hundred dead dolphins were found, and according to statistics, whales began to die more often. Their carcasses were found thousands of kilometers from the crash site.
The oil spill affected the fishing, tourism, and oil industries of the coastal states of the United States. One hundred fifty thousand fishermen and restaurant workers lost their jobs. Economic losses in the field of tourism reached 23 billion dollars.
Conclusion
The company itself blamed the incompleteness of its employees and tried to blame the human factor. However, this company was well-known for its careless attitude to security issues. According to the Center for Public Safety, by 2010, 851 safety violations had been recorded at British Petroleum plants in other states. The US Department of Labor found almost all of them malicious.
This large-scale catastrophe will forever remain a black spot in US history. In popular culture, the catastrophe was shown by Peter Berg. In 2016, he made the film “Deepwater Horizon”. This is a must for a student who study Ecology in college or university.