Deepwater Horizon: a decade of disaster – The Verge

Offshore drilling has dug itself a deeper hole since Deepwater Horizon

2020-04-20T17:15:15-04:00

Ever since the first oil well was built in the Gulf of Mexico in 14 feet of water in 1938, technology advancements made it easier to move farther away from shore in pursuit of new oil reserves, at times without a plan for worst-case scenarios. Just one year before the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig became the site of the most devastating oil spill in American history, it succeeded in drilling what was the deepest oil and gas well ever at the time. The rig bored through more than 35,000 feet of ocean floor while working in waters more than 4,130 feet deep.

Explosions rocked the rig on the evening of April 20th, 2010, after the ultra-deepwat …

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New Deepwater Horizon data reveals invisible oil that satellites may have missed

2020-02-13T11:15:23-05:00

"Invisible oil" escaped the view of satellites that were tasked with measuring the extent of the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, according to a new study. In the Science Advances article, researchers argue that updated techniques need to be deployed alongside satellite measurements to track future oil spills below the water's surface.

BP's Deepwater Horizon rig spewed more than 200 million gallons into the Gulf in 2010. At the time, satellite readings were used to determine which areas in the Gulf were off-limits to fishing, but the dangers posed by the spilled oil to fish and the humans who eat them spread beyond tho …

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This was the decade climate change slapped us in the face

2019-12-10T11:17:29-05:00

It was springtime at the start of a new decade when a series of explosions brought down the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in April 2010, triggering the largest oil spill in US history. Footage of the plumes of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico flooded newscasts as 200 million gallons spewed out over 87 days. The sight was transfixing: the ugly lifeblood of industrialization no longer hidden away in pipelines, but unleashed.

It was the start of a decade that would force people and policymakers to come face-to-face with the unintended consequences of building a world by burning fossil fuels. Between then and today, broken temperature reco …

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The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused widespread land erosion in Louisiana

2016-11-23T12:55:53-05:00

Oil on the shores of Bay Jimmy, Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, in 2010. | Bruce A. Davis, Department of Homeland Security

Marnie Winter remembers seeing the oil spread through the waters of Barataria Bay in southeastern Louisiana. It was 2010, just a few weeks after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico began the largest marine oil spill in US history. About 4 million barrels of oil were poured into the sea, affecting more than 1,300 miles of shoreline from Texas to Florida.

"It was scary," says Winter, who's the assistant director of the environmental department at Jefferson parish, one of the three parishes surrounding Barataria Bay. She and other local officials began working with the Coast Guard to keep the oil from reaching t …

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BP estimates it will pay an additional $2.5 billion for the Deepwater Horizon debacle

2016-07-14T14:27:34-04:00

BP Global plans to announce in its upcoming second quarter earnings report that it will pay an additional $2.5 billion for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010, according to The Guardian. The additional charges bring BP's total pretax fines to date to $61.6 billion, or $44 billion post-taxes.

BP will pay an additional $2.5 billion

The company's chief financial officer has assured investors that any other outstanding claims related to the spill would not have material impact on the company.

The Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010 killed 11 people and caused nearly 5 million barrels of oil to spill into the Gulf of Mexico. As recently as A …

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Deepwater Horizon oil spill linked to newborn and fetal dolphin deaths

2016-04-12T12:49:54-04:00

Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have linked an "unusual mortality event" involving bottlenose dolphins along the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In a recent study published in Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, the researchers determined that fetal and newborn dolphins in the spill area were more likely to have died in utero or shortly after birth than dolphins outside the area.

From February 2010 to December 2013, the scientists evaluated 69 perinatal dolphins found stranded in areas heavily affected by the spill and compared them to 26 bottlenose dolphins unaff …

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BP to pay US government $20.8 billion for Gulf oil disaster

2016-04-04T15:40:27-04:00

A federal judge has approved BP's $20 billion settlement over its 2010 oil spill, the Associated Press reports. First reached in October, the final settlement amount accounts for civil claims against the company set forth by the Department of Justice and five Gulf states. US Attorney General Loretta Lynch previously called the settlement "the largest with a single entity in American history."

While $5.5 billion will go toward penalties incurred under the Clean Water Act, most of the money will be given to five states - Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas - and 400 local government entities to cover damages from the spill. BP …

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BP will pay states $18.7 billion for 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill

2015-07-02T09:40:06-04:00

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BP has reached a settlement in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill case. The Deepwater Horizon disaster, which took place in 2010, killed 11 rig workers and blew the cap off a well, spilling hundreds of millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf for months. Now the company will have to pay $18.7 billion to the US government and five states over the course of 18 years.

"Largest settlement with a single entity in American history."

The agreement is the "largest settlement with a single entity in American history," said Loretta Lynch, US attorney general. A record $5.5 billion will be used to cover federal penalties under the Clean Water Act, Bloom …

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Dolphin deaths in Gulf of Mexico linked to Deepwater Horizon oil spill

2015-05-22T15:28:16-04:00

Large numbers of bottlenose dolphins have been washing up on the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest spill to take place in US waters. While it seems like it should be a safe assumption to link the spill to the dolphins' deaths, there's been a holdup: the dolphins actually started washing up in elevated levels two months before the spill, potentially because of a cold winter.

"Some of the most severe lung lesions I have seen."

But the deaths have continued into 2015, and researchers have been trying all the while to determine what the actual cause is. In the latest study, rese …

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Deepwater Horizon spill left an oil ring the size of Rhode Island at the bottom of the sea, study says

2014-10-28T09:59:17-04:00

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There's an oil ring the size of Rhode Island at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and researchers say it belongs to oil company BP. According to a study published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, about 10 million gallons of coagulated oil now coats the sea floor, following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that resulted in 172 million gallons of oil being spilled into the Gulf in 2010. The rest of the oil, however, is still largely unaccounted for.

10 million gallons of coagulated oil coats the sea floor

"Based on the evidence, our findings suggest that these deposits are from Macondo oil that was first suspended in …

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