Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

By: Gage Cullen

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Also known as the BP oil spill Began April 20, 2010 Occurred 50 miles off shore 31% larger than previously largest oil spill Claimed 11 lives Flowed 87 days before capped on July 15, 2010

Background

Was a 9 year old rig It was semi submersible, mobile floating drilling rig Could operate in waters up to 10,000 feet deep Built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Was drilling at 35,500 feet in 5,100 feet of water

Explosion

High pressure methane gas expanded into the drilling riser Rose into drilling rig, where it was ignited and exploded The explosion engulfed the whole platform 126 employees were on board 11 workers were never found 17 more were treated for injuries

Extent of Spill

The flow rate was approximately 62,000 barrels per day Total volume equaling 4.9 million barrels Equivalent to 210,000 gallons Impacted 68,000 square miles Comparable to the size of Oklahoma

Removal

Combustion, offshore filtration, and collection 33 million US gallons were recovered 2,063 skimmers were used to filter the water 890,000 barrels of oil were removed Vacuums were used for beaches and marshes

Environmental Impact

The spill area hosts 8,332 species The oil contained about 40% methane Methane suffocates can suffocate marine life Can create dead zones where there is no Oxygen Chemicals from the spill were found in birds as far as Minnesota In 2012 50% of shrimp were lacking eyes and eye sockets

Environmental Impact (CONT)

50% Fish had lesions (.1% prior to spill) Dead dolphins were found 10 times as often 17% of bottlenose dolphins were projected to not survive 650 dolphins were found stranded in the oil spill area In 2013 tar balls were still being found off the coast

Chart
BP Well vs. US Consumption vs. World Consumption

100,000,000 90,000,000 80,000,000 70,000,000 60,000,000 50,000,000 40,000,000 30,000,000 20,000,000 10,000,000 0

Barrels

BP Well Disaster

Daily US Consumption

Daily World Consumption

Criminal Charges
Kurt Mix was the first one charged He deleted messages showing BP knew the spill rate was 3 times higher than initial claims 6 other BP employees were charged BP pled guilty to 11 felony counts They were charged 4 billion dollars Transocean was fine 1.4 billion

Pictures

Closing Slide

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill claimed 11 lives 17 more were treated for injuries Total volume of the spill was 4.9 million barrels It impacted 68,000 square miles Lots of negative consequences on environment