ipl-logo

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Case Study

733 Words3 Pages

Abstract
The Deepwater Horizon Rig explosion that occurred on 20th April, 2010 resulted in approximately 4.9 million barrels of oil been released into the Gulf of Mexico for months and will go down in history as the biggest and most catastrophic oil spill to ever to occur. This research discusses the underlying issues that caused the explosion. The effect on the stakeholders, BP’s response to the crisis and the different approaches they could have taken before and after the accident.

Introduction
The tragic events that occurred on the 20th of April, 2010, the explosion onboard The Deepwater Horizon oil rig left 11 dead and many injured. Resulting in 4.9 million barrels of oil been released into the Gulf of Mexico. The disaster caused economic and environmental damages to coastlines, and was documented as one of the biggest and …show more content…

BP accepted it responsibility for the disaster but also blames two of its contractors.
On 20th April, 2010 as the team onboard Deepwater Horizon was preparing to temporarily leave the well it had drilled some 70 kilometers from the US coast.
The day prior to the disaster, as standard procedure to prevent oil leaking out cement was pumped to the bottom of the borehole. The teams were conducting checks on the day of the disaster to find out if the well had been properly sealed.
Eight Safety System Failures
Dodgy cement
According to BP the cement formulation appeared not to have been up to standards therefore it did not create a seal at the bottom of the borehole, causing a leak allowing oil and gas to leak into the pipe leading to the surface.
Valve

Show More
Related
257 Words | 2 Pages

In “Is Humanity a Special Threat?” author Greg Easterbrook states his thoughts about the Prince William Sound site oil spill, saying that in 10 years the William sound site will look as if it had never been affected by the destructive oil spill. In 1992, Easterbrook recalls himself aboard the research vessel Arctic Dream, in the waters of Prince William Sound. What he found amazed him. Author Easterbrook recalls the scene saying, “it was just 3 years later, and already the sound was so close to its former state, it was impossible to determine where the spill had occurred without resorting to navigation charts.”

Read More
300 Words | 2 Pages

Investigators then decided to hire a private company to plumb the well and drain it. An investigative team sent down a camera inside the well but it was very unclear and they didn’t see anything conclusive. When the investigators opened the case back up they asked why they didn’t go to the extreme measurements then instead of waiting this long , his reply was that they didn’t have the technology back then like they do now. Madelines case will forever be

Read More
2299 Words | 10 Pages

With rising gas prices and an increasing reliance on nonrenewable resources, finding a reliable source for extracting and transporting oil has become an issue. In 2010, the Keystone Pipeline project was proposed and commissioned by TransCanada. Essentially, this is a pipeline that transports oil sands bitumen across the Canada-US border and into several different reserves in the States. An additional extension to the Keystone Pipeline, the Keystone XL Pipeline, has also been proposed. Several issues arise when considering the consequences of this new proposal, including the potential for oil spills and habitat damage.

Read More
293 Words | 2 Pages

During the Great Depression, poverty swept across America like a storm destroying everything in its path. One such storm hit a small part of Texas where a man named Ira Yates ran a sheep ranch. Struggling to keep food on the table and pay his mortgage, Yates did all he could to make it. One day, a geologic crew from a large oil company visited.

Read More
722 Words | 3 Pages

For centuries the United States has been a beacon of hope for environmentalism, and it is imperative for our country that we preserve this identity. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or ANWR is in the secluded northeastern corner of Alaska and could contain large reserves of oil in the Prudhoe Bay region. The question of whether or not to drill for oil has been a controversial topic in American politics for decades, though the evidence will show that drilling for oil is a mistake for this country. This is because it will devastate and destroy the fragile environment. Additionally, drilling in Prudhoe Bay will not solve our oil problems.

Read More
262 Words | 2 Pages

It is 8 am, December 7, 1941. Everything is peaceful at U.S. Naval base Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. Until, suddenly, Japanese bomber planes filled the air and chaos ensumed. Unsuspecting ships were relentlessly attacked. A bomb crashed through the deck of warship USS Arizona.

Read More
149 Words | 1 Pages

Over the past few months, California has been hit with a slew of storms and now the Oroville Dam is overflowing with water. This would not have been as bad a situation if the emergency spillways were not damaged by erosion; or as the anchorman said “... erosion has opened a hole the almost size of a football field and it’s almost 40 feet deep…”. The towns downstream were evacuated because of the potential for flash flooding for the 75 miles downstream from the dam. Workers then started crushing rocks to reinforce and fix the damaged spillways and to delay the potential of flash flooding. Over 200,000 people were evacuated, highways were filled, and gas pumps were emptied in the panic.

Read More
456 Words | 2 Pages

The oil spill happened during the night of April 20th when a surge of natural gas came up through the concrete which was recently installed to hold the drill for later uses. Earlier in the day BP sent the crew home who was supposed to test the concrete and make sure it was okay to use to hold the drill. BP said they were confident in their work, so instead they decided to run a pressure test on the drill, and the first one past so they tried saying see we don't have a problem but the captain of the oil rig said no we are going to run another test and at first it was passing to the pressure gauge wasn't going up and then it started rising very fast.

Read More
403 Words | 2 Pages

Texas Oil Boom The Texas oil boom, also known as “The Gusher,” was one of the most exciting moments of the 1900s. According to The History Channel ``One of the negative effects about the oil boom is drilling the oil makes a bad impact on the wildlife around it.” The texas oil boom had a lot of great traits to it, like how taxes from it were going to educate underprivileged kids, but not all traits were great. You see while all the oil was fantastic, drilling it from the earth is very harmful to the wildlife around the sight. The boom made soils erode, contaminated waters and not to mention the visable destruction it did.

Read More
419 Words | 2 Pages

Moreover, the cementing process for drill casing was compromised by both BP and Halliburton when decisions were made to proceed with designing the well with fewer centralizers that were needed for an effective shaft (Crandall, et al., 2013). Lastly, there were questionable results of the pressure testing, which were a result of BP lacking standard procedures and lack of knowledge in interpreting test results (Crandall, et al., 2013). Failure of BP management, as well as the additional contractors to ensure proper mechanisms were in place to confirm safety of the various areas which played an integral role in the drilling aspect resulted in the oil spill which proved to be a major crisis for

Read More
496 Words | 2 Pages

Deepwater Horizon is a Korean built oil rig platform that sat in the Gulf of Mexico. It arrived and became operation in the Gulf of Mexico in 2001 (Crandall, Parnell & Spillian, 2014). Although it functioned as a living quarters for employees, its main function was to drill for oil (Crandall, et al., 2014). The United States began using deepwater drilling as an alternative to offshore oil production in response to depleting oil reserves in more shallow waters off the United States’ coastline. Days before the well exploded, BP, Macondo, and Halliburton, the owners and builders of the well, ran tests to ensure that the well was functioning properly and did not have any leaks (Crandall, et al., 2014).

Read More
499 Words | 2 Pages

This paper will focus on one event, and how it impacts the social communication to let racial profiling as a security measure. To provide a detailed explanation, analysis the discussion about racial profiling from supporters and critics. At the same time, the paper summarizes some ideas for taking possible action for better social communication in future. Racial profiling was started in 911. "911" incident took place in the United States the most serious terrorist attacks, the total number of victims up to 3000 people. The incident caused a psychological impact on the American public is extremely far-reaching, the American people on the security politics were severely weakened.

Read More
991 Words | 4 Pages

1. Introduction In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil platform spit nearly five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, making it the largest oil spill in history. The 1989 oil spill surpassed Exxon Valdez's oil spill in 1989 as the largest oil spill ever seen in US-controlled waters and the Ixtoc I oil spill of 1979 as the largest oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. On April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon, an ultra-deepwater offshore rig, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico about 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 riggers and injuring 17 others.

Read More
812 Words | 4 Pages

While accidents obviously do happen, the technology designed to prevent oil spills have been greatly improved and environmental damage heavily reduced. In actuality, offshore oil production has lowered the amount of oil released into the ocean by reducing offshore oil seeps in areas such as California’s Santa Barbara Coast. These oil seeps account for 63% of hydrocarbon pollution in the US according to the National Academy of Sciences whereas only 1% is due to offshore drilling and extractions. According to the Country of Santa Barbara website, oil seepage zones lead to 70,000 barrels worth of oil being washed up on the shore. In 4 years that’s more oil than the 240,000 barrels that spilled from the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

Read More
828 Words | 4 Pages

Drilling into Disaster: BP in the Gulf of Mexico Gulf of Mexico is one of the valuable place in which it has variety of marine life, such as fish, shrimp and other species The issues of incident on spill oil should be on concerned as it leads to this disaster for human being and environment. The case is discussed how BP company responses. It means how its board and management accountability, corporate responsibility, risk management, code of conduct and whistleblowing, compensation practices, and stakeholder communications react on this disaster. With regard to the disaster, BP CEO should have behaved appropriately because he should have responsibility on his job and should give his employees a better solution better than not saying anything. The problem was still there even BP change CEO to Dudley.

Read More

More about Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Case Study

Related Topics

Open Document