Deep Water Horizon oil spill facts

The catastrophic oil spill in the gulf became front-page development the moment the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded and caught fire on April 20, 2010, killing 11 employees and starting the worst man-made environmental disaster in U.S. record.

However, there are a number of aspects of the damaging oil spill in the gulf which have been over looked or underreported because of the media—things you need to know.

In Summer 2010, professionals from all major oil organizations that drill overseas in U.S. waters testified before Congress that they could possibly be trusted to drill properly in deep water. The executives stated they regularly follow safe drilling processes that BP had dismissed, and advertised to have containment programs that may deal with a great deal larger oil spills versus Deepwater Horizon spill. But it ends up the containment plans of Exxon, Mobil, Chevron and Shell tend to be nearly just like BP's plan, citing the same exaggerated response abilities, the exact same protections for walruses along with other non-Gulf wildlife, the same ineffective gear, and same long-dead specialist. Looks like these guys have-been sharing their research. Preventing the oil leaking from the damaged undersea well is one thing; really cleaning up the oil spill is yet another. BP has tried each and every technique it can consider to stop the oil spewing in to the Gulf, from containment domes to junk shots toward top kill approach to injecting drilling fluid into the well. Nothing spent some time working, and its method of siphoning a number of the oil to vessels at first glance is a stopgap measure at the best. But no matter if BP eventually discovers a way to stop the leak, most professionals estimate that the many positive cleanup situation is a maximum of 20 per cent for the oil are going to be recovered. As a place of reference, after the Exxon Valdez spill workers recovered only 8 percent. No matter what BP does now, countless gallons of oil will continue to pollute the Gulf coast consistently in the future. More » In 2005, the BP refinery in Tx City exploded, killing 15 workers and hurting 170. Here 12 months, a BP pipeline in Alaska leaked 200, 000 gallons of oil. In accordance with Public Citizen, BP features paid $550 million in fines over the years (pocket modification for an organization that earns $93 million per day), like the two biggest fines in OSHA history. BP don't learn much from those experiences. In the Deepwater Horizon rig, BP decided not to put in an acoustic trigger that may have turn off the really regardless if it absolutely was defectively damaged. Acoustic causes are required in many created countries, nevertheless US only recommends them, making the decision to oil businesses. The causes cost $500, 000, a sum BP earns in about eight minutes. Internal documents that show time and again BP knowingly places its employees in danger by selecting substandard products or cutting sides on safety procedures—all in order to reduce expenses while increasing earnings. For a company that is respected at $152.6 billion, that appears a little cold-blooded. A BP Risk Management memo about the Tx City oil refinery, as an example, indicated that although metallic trailers could be less dangerous for workers in case there is an explosion, the company opted for cheaper designs that have been not developed to withstand fun. At a refinery explosion in 2005, all 15 fatalities and several associated with the accidents took place or near the cheaper trailers. BP claims the business culture changed subsequently, but the majority proof things another way.

Inside three weeks after the Deepwater Horizon overseas oil rig exploded on April 20, the government authorized 27 brand new overseas drilling tasks. Twenty-six of the tasks had been authorized with ecological waivers like one accustomed green-light BP's life-threatening Deepwater Horizon disaster. Two had been for brand new BP projects. Obama imposed a 6-month moratorium on brand-new overseas projects and a finish to environmental exemptions, but inside a fortnight Internal had issued at least seven brand new licenses, five with ecological waivers. The moment the moratorium is raised, BP and Shell tend to be both poised to start drilling projects in Arctic Ocean, a host at the very least as fragile and significantly more dangerous compared to Gulf of Mexico. Even More »