The Deepwater Horizon Oilspill

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, also called the BP Oil Spill, the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill or the Macondo blowout, is a massive ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, now considered the largest offshore spill in U.S. history. The spill stems from a sea floor oil qusher that started with an oil well blowout on April 20, 2010. The blowout caused a catastrophic explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling platform. The Deepwater Horizon Oil S Spill Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Affected Area Name: Deepwater Horizon Semi-submersible drilling unit Designation: Built: 2001 Mobile- Dothano Pensacola Hyundai 396ft long, 256ft wide 8,000ft $560m Transocean Ltd, leased to BP until 2013 $502,000 per day $365m Constructor: Size: lisiana New Porde ns Operation Depth: Total Insured Value of Rig: Owned by: Cost to Hire: Cost to Build: Panama Oil Spill Timeline Explosion on Deepwater Horizon Rig. The rig was drilling at the time, but not in production 20 Apr Evacuation of workers begins 21 Apr 115 evacuated 11 killed The rig tilts from 10 degrees to 70 over the course of the day, giving rise to fears of toppling 22 Apr Rig sinks 36 hours after explosion Workers evacuated: 115 Workers injured: Workers injured (critically): 3 14 Coast guard reports possible leak of 8,000 oil barrels (300,000 gallons) per day Workers killed: 11 Total staff: 126 Barack Obama announces dealing with the disaster is a "number one priority" 23 Apr Marine crews report area of 1x5 miles of what appears to be oil on water surface 26 April Total spill to date 48,000 barrels = 2,016,000 gallons 26 Apr Daily leakage figure: 1,000 barrels per day 23.000ft of containment booms deployed, 70,000ft waiting to go up and 50,000ft on order 27 April - Slick grows to 580 sq miles. 27 Apr Slick grows to 580 sq miles Equilvalent in size to 280,740 football pitches Robot submarines sent to try to stem oil leak. 29 Apr Daily leakage figure: 5,000 barrels per day US Military join efforts. 49 cleanup vessels now at scene 29 April Total spill to date 240,000 barrels = 10,080,000 gallons 30 Apr Oil reaches Louisiana shoreline BBC reports oil slick is 4,000 sq miles 1,900 emergency workers and 300 ships sent to disaster zone 01 May Obama visits site. Calls spill "a potentially 02 May unprecedented environmental disaster" 30 April Slick grows to 4000 sq miles. Meaning that it could cover New York City 8 times BP executive admits the leak could be 04 May 10 times the current estimate of 5,000 barrels per day Shoreline oil confirmed in Chandeleur 07 May islands Variance in reported spill flow rate 100000 08 May BP's containment dome plan fails 80000 Drifting oil arrives at Terrabonne and Atchafalaya Bays 10 May 60000 40000 22 April 24 April 28 April 29 April 1 May 5May 17 May 14 May Effort to staunch flow using mile-long pipe fails 14 May 20000 Enormous plumes of oil forming under gulf, as big as 30 sq miles at 300 feet thick 15 May INDEPENDENT INDEPENDENT ANALYSS INDERENDENT INDEPENDENT RMACDONALD JAMOS WURELEY (AVERAGE) WERELIY OVISED) SOURCE BP announces It is capturing 1,000 barrels of oil per day 17 May BP revises this figure to 2,000 barrels of oil captured per day 24 May Slick grows to 30,000 sq miles. 18 May This would cover an area the size of Hawaii 3 times. E.P.A urges BP to use a less toxic dispersant 20 May 24 May Size of slick: 30,000 sq miles 27 May Daily leakage figure: 19,000 barrels 27 May Total spill to date 912,000 barrels = 38,304,000 gallons BP stock takes a 17% plunge, wiping $23 1 June billion of its market value BP begin to funnel off the leaking, saving 1,000 barrels a day 4 June BP captures 10,000 barrels a day, more than half is now being captured 6 June Comparison to other spills 1979 2010 38m gallons leaked from Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig. 1991 520m gallons released from Iraqi 1983 80m gallons leaked into the Gulf over 140m gallons spilt over 9 months from well blow-out off Mexico coast oil tankers on several months purpose to impede US troops during Gulf War. after tanker collides with drilling platform 1979 11m gallons spilt 90m gallons leaked from Greek tanker 1989 into Alaska's Prince William Sound in after collision with another ship off coast of Trinidad Exxon Valdex disaster FIGURE (BARRELS PER DAY)