On April 20, the BP oil company caused a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This oil spill is seen as the largest oil spill ever, BP suffered extensive reputation damage and it will cost them a lot of money due to various claims. This article outlines the events and consequences.
Gulf of Mexico
The oil spill took place in the Macondo field, which is located in the Gulf of Mexico off the south coast of the United States. The disaster was caused by an explosion on April 20, 2010 on the semi-submersible oil platform Deepwater Horizon. This oil platform is owned by the company Transocean but has been leased by this company to BP. The explosion on the oil platform used by BP was caused by a so-called blow-out. A blow-out is when gas or oil breaks through and from the borehole to ground level. This explosion killed 11 and injured 17. In addition, the drill rod broke because the oil platform sank during the extinguishing attempts.
A disaster was the result because a malfunctioning blowout preventer (also called BOP or blow-out preventer) caused oil to flow into the sea until 15 July 2010. This declared a state of emergency in the states of Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi because of the oil spills on the south coast of the US. US President Barack Obama even declared this oil spill a national disaster.
Flow rate
The term to indicate the amount of medium (liquid or gas) flowing through per unit of time is also called flow rate. This flow rate kept increasing during the disaster, possibly because BP itself gave too conservative estimates of the flow. At the beginning of the disaster, the flow was estimated at 800,000 liters per day. During the disaster this kept increasing, in the New York Times the flow was even estimated at possibly 16 million barrels per day! Scientists have already spoken of the largest oil spill and pollution ever, even more oil has leaked than during the accident with the Exxon Valdez oil tanker near Alaska in 1989.
How did BP try to stop the leak?
There have been several attempts to stop oil leaks by BP and Transocean. Because the leaks were located at a depth of 1500 meters, methods that proved successful in the past did not work here, such as pumping drilling fluid into the leaks and placing a metal dome over the leaks. The first success was achieved on May 5, 2010 when the smallest leak could be closed by placing a concrete sarcophagus over the smallest leak, unfortunately this did not work for the other 2 leaks. A second success was achieved on 17 May 2010 when it was possible to place a pipe in the leak, this pipe was able to collect some of the leaking oil.
More than 5 weeks after the start of the disaster, new methods were tried to plug the leaks, the so-called top kill method. This method means that robots inject a mix of different substances into the pipeline under great pressure, after which the hole is permanently closed with cement. Unfortunately this method did not work, probably the hole started to leak again due to the great pressure that was created on the cement.
Another attempt was made in June. This time, a piece of the leaking oil pipe was removed by sawing it off using unmanned aerial vehicles (ROVs). This caused even more oil to leak from the leak temporarily. To compensate for this, a new funnel was placed over the leak. On June 16, a second funnel was even placed over the leak. Oil was collected through this funnel and mixed with compressed air, after which this mixture could be burned on a platform at sea. On June 23, a setback followed when one of the unmanned vessels hit one of the funnels. Due to this collision, this funnel had to be removed to be repaired, luckily the funnel could be replaced 10 hours later. According to BP itself, the oil flow had in any case temporarily stopped on July 15 after the installation of a new hood. At the beginning of August, another attempt was made by pouring cement into the leak. To date, this has been going well, although there is the fear that due to the great pressure at a depth of 1500 meters, leaks may occur at other weak spots in the soil.
Direct and indirect consequences of the BP oil spill
There are several direct and indirect consequences of the oil spill. This includes the consequences for the environment, but also the consequences this has for BP as a company.
- Hundreds of claims have been filed, this will have major consequences for BP
- BP’s reputation has been seriously damaged.
- BP has set up a $ 20 billion emergency fund. As a result, they will not pay dividends to shareholders and may even have to sell assets.
- The environment has been seriously damaged, oiled birds and turtles have already been found.
- Fishing in the affected areas has been halted.
- In the future, damage to the ecosystems may still be expected from the chemicals used in the attempts to plug the leaks.
- Oil production on at least two oil platforms has been shut down due to the risk of fire.
- BP’s CEO has stepped down.
- For the future, new oil drilling has been suspended, which may have consequences for the oil price worldwide.
Costs of the BP oil spill
The costs for BP of this oil spill are still rising, these costs have already reached billions of dollars. These costs include the costs of plugging the leak, the costs of collecting and cleaning up oil and compensation for those affected. BP is also suffering major reputation damage from this oil spill.