Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Basic Info
1. Lasted from 22nd April 2010 until 15th July (86 days)
2. Affected large area of Gulf of Mexico and sections of the USA Gulf coast
3. Oil slick as large as 75,000sq.kms
4. Oil had come ashore on coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida by first week in June
5. Largest marine oil spill in history
  1. 70,000 barrels of oil a day
  2. Total oil released 4,900,000 barrels
    1. Exxon Valdez - 261,905
Causes
1. Explosion triggered by bubble of methane gas on Deepwater Horizon offshore oil platform
  1. Owned by Transocean Ltd, under a BP contract
2. After explosion, oil platform sank causing crude oil to escape from riser
  1. Sank in 1,500m of water
3. Continued despite many attempts by BP to plug well
4. Spread by wind drive waves and currents
IMPACTS
1. Economic Impacts
  1. Fishing communities along Gulf of Mexico affected
  2. Fishing banned in 36% of Gulf federal waters - restarted in Mid-July
  3. Closure of oyester beds and shrimp operations
    1. $962million a year
    2. 20% of nation's commercial seafood production
  4. lost tourist revenues
    1. economic impact expected to exceed $23billion
  5. Cleanup costs $6million a day
  6. TOTAL COST - $40BILLION
2. Environmental Impacts
  1. 6000 birds found dead
  2. 600 turtles and 100 dolphins found dead
  3. impact on wildlife was little as occurred 80km from shore
  4. strings of weathered oil sighted moving towards Mississippi river threatening thousands of migrating ducks and geese
3. Human
  1. 11 deaths
  2. 17 injured
Evaluation
1. BP failure to capture oil for nearly 3 months
2. vulnerability of coastal ecosystems and wildlife to oil spill
3. location of oil spill only 80kms from land

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Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

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