On April 20, 2010, 80 kilometers off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, killing 11 workers, the rig itself collapsed, and tons of crude oil spilled into the ocean. About 5 million barrels of oil entered the Gulf of Mexico, polluting the coast, destroying the economy of cities and destroying the environment.
The study of the disaster is still ongoing, considering the effectiveness of dispersants and the impact of long-term effects on human and animal health.
The oil spill that followed the accident was the largest in US history and turned the accident into one of the largest man-made disasters in terms of negative impact on the environment.
In this post, we look at what happened before and one year after this disaster.
Firefighters fight a fire at the Deepwater Horizon tower off the coast of Louisiana on April 21, 2010. (Reuters/U.S. Coast Guard)
A burning Deepwater Horizon tower in the Gulf of Mexico, 80 km southeast of Venice, Louisiana, on April 20. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A ship collects oil after the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 28, 2010. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
A dispersant-spraying aircraft over the waters of the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
A flock of dolphins in the oily waters of Chandele Bay. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A column of smoke from burning oil off the coast of Louisiana on June 9, 2010. (Reuters/Petty Officer First Class John Masson/U.S. Coast Guard)
Crude oil on the shores of Orange Beach, Alabama, on June 12, 2010. A large amount of oil reached the coast of Alabama, leaving behind puddles with a density of 13-15 cm in some places. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
A juvenile heron dies in oil-contaminated thickets after an oil spill in Barataria Bay on May 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Environmental Protection Fund expert Angelina Freeman takes an oil sample in Barataria Bay. (Reuters/Sean Gardner)
Reuters photographer Lee Celano walks in oil-polluted brush near Pass-a-Loutre, Louisiana, on May 20, 2010. (Reuters/Matthew Biggs)
A NASA satellite image of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. (Reuters/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
Underwater coral at the bottom of the northern Gulf of Mexico, near the site of an oil spill in September 2010. Scientists are checking whether the catastrophe harmed the corals. (AP Photo/Discovre Team 2010)
Vessels helping to drill a deviated well at sunset on September 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Courtney Kemp, 27, mourns her husband, Roy Watt Kemp, who died in the Deepwater Horizon explosion in Jonesville, Louisiana. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Raindrops on an oil puddle near the crash site. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
An oil-damaged northern gannet is washed up at a wildlife rescue center in Fort Jackson on July 1, 2010. (Reuters/Sean Gardner)
The Q4000 vessel hauls an explosion-damaged blowout valve on September 4, 2010. The valve, which was removed from the tower and replaced with a new one, will be taken for examination. (Reuters/Petty Officer 1st Class Thomas Blue/U.S. Coast Guard)
Hundreds of cranes and boats sail the calm waters of Port Fourchon on December 3, 2010 in Golden Meadow, Louisiana. The bustling port froze after a ban on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. (AP Photo/Kerry Maloney)
Healthy pink spoonbills over Cat Island in Barataria Bay, near Myrtle Grove, on March 31. (Reuters/Sean Gardner)
Tulane University ecologist Jessica Henkel sets up a net to catch incoming birds to collect blood, feces and feathers at Fourchon Beach on April 1. This is part of a research project on the effects of an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on birds that stop here during their migration. "It's easier to spot a dead pelican on a beach than the aftermath of a disaster that could come up in the future," says Jessica. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Workers clean up oil at Perdido Key National Park in Pensacola, Florida on March 10. Work to clean up the beaches along the Gulf of Mexico is still ongoing. (Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
A great blue heron climbs a barrier used to protect a beach from an oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon on June 7, 2010 in Pensacola, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Marine products company owner Darlene Kimball greets customers at the company's office in Pass Christian, Mississippi, on March 29. Kimball, who has never been compensated for her damages after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, is afraid to even think about where the local government spent the BP funds. (AP Photo/Jason Bronis)
A dolphin named Louie at the Dolphin Research Center communicates with veterinarian Kara Field February 8 in Marathon, Florida. The dolphin was found on September 2, 2010 - it washed up on the beach in Port Fourchon in Louisiana, it was completely saturated with oil. Since then, he has been cared for at the Marine Mammal Research and Education Center in the Florida Keys. Louis arrived at the research facility after being brought back to life at the New Orleans Institute. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Oil-covered dead grass mixed with newly grown grass in Barataria Bay, near Myrtle Grove, Louisiana, on March 31. (Reuters/Sean Gardner)
A dead sea turtle washed ashore at Pass Christian on April 16. Local activist Shirley Tillman found 20 dead turtles in Mississippi in April alone. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Sunset over marshlands in Barataria Bay on April 13. The Gulf of Barataria with its swamps was the most affected by the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Hans Holbrook in swamps filled with birdsong speakers at the annual Christmas Bird Count in Grand Isle, Louisiana, December 22, 2010. 60,000 birdwatchers from across the Western Hemisphere flock here in the winter to count the birds in these areas and donate the lists to the Audubon Society. This tradition has been going on for 110 years. (AP Photo/Sean Gardner)
Guests enjoy seafood from the Gulf of Mexico during the "Dinner on the Sand: Bay Celebration" event in Gulf Shores, Alabama, on April 17. Celebrity chef Guy Firi set the table for 500 people in honor of the cleanup of the beach after the disaster a year ago. (Michael Spooneybarger/ AP Images for Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism)
A worker scans a beach for oil residue in Pensacola, Florida on March 10. (Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
Louisiana Wildlife Conservation and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham with a handful of oil-covered dead grass at Jimmy's Bay in Plackmines Parish, Louisiana. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Researchers from the Audubon Institute, the National Institute of Oceanography and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries release oil-rescued sea turtles back into the Gulf of Mexico 72 km off the coast of Louisiana on October 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Price Billiot at a fishing spot in the fishing village of Point-O-Shan in Louisiana on January 28, 2011. Billiot survives in part thanks to the $65,000 BP PLC paid him in June to help pay for the loss of the business. Even before the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the American-Indian village was on the verge of collapse due to social changes and the loss of coastal territories. Now Indians, who have been fishing all their lives, are dependent on Kenneth Feinberg, the man handing out billions of dollars of checks for disaster damage. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
The sun reflects off the blue water where the Deepwater Horizon once stood, almost a year later. The ugly spots of last summer have turned into fading memories, as if proving that nature tends to regenerate itself. However, this is only a shiny surface, the image of which can be deceiving. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
In April 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and released 4.9 million barrels of oil into the ocean. An accident at a BP tower endangered wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico and threatened to pollute hundreds of miles of coastline. What are the environmental consequences of one of the largest oil spills in history, and are they as catastrophic as feared a year ago? ..
Consequences of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
Scientists warn that the time has not yet come for a thoughtful assessment of the impact of the accident in the Gulf of Mexico on nature, since they have not received a complete picture of what is happening over the past year.The oil spill affected such a large area that it would take months and years to collect data.
However, there are still some grounds for optimism, Jane Lubchenko, administrator of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the leading federal agencies involved in the aftermath of the accident, said in an interview with the Associated Press.
According to her, the state of the Gulf of Mexico "much better than feared."
"It's too early to say that everything is fine," she says. "Certain surprises are still being discovered - for example, we find dead dolphins."
Damage assessment
US federal agencies collect data on the effects of oil spills as part of the official "Natural Resource Damage Assessment" (NRDA).But access to the materials of this investigation is severely limited, scientists and environmental activists say.
The NRDA methodology is designed to assess damage to both the environment and sectors of the economy, such as agriculture and fisheries, and calculate the cost of correcting the damage.
"Both we and many others have been trying to get a glimpse of the findings of this group of agencies and researchers, and it's been nearly impossible," says Claude Gascon, head of research at the nonprofit National Fish and Wildlife Fund.
"And the reason is simple: compensation will be the subject of many litigations," adds Gascon.
"If the [damage assessment process] is fully implemented, it will take several years, possibly more, then it will be necessary to develop a plan for damages and file claims with the responsible parties," explains Stan Senner, director of science at the non-profit Ocean Conservancy. (Ocean Conservancy).
A similar procedure was carried out after the oil spill from the tanker Exxon Valdez in 1989. Senner was working for the federal government at the time.
"We started the process and assessed the damage. But two years after the spill, the government and Exxon settled their claims out of court and the NRDA process was not completed," the environmentalist recalls.
Continue observing
Beaches and birds have suffered, but if not for the actions of the authorities, the damage could have been even worse
In his opinion, this time the collection of data on environmental damage will need to continue, even if BP manages to reach an agreement with the US government.
"This may or may not happen, but I want to emphasize that regardless of the settlement of claims, the scientific work must continue. This will help us understand how long we will face the consequences of the accident, how long it will take to recover, and so on," Senner says.
He points out that this information will be needed to assess the risks associated with the development of oil and gas fields in the Arctic.
"There is simply much less known about the Arctic region where it is proposed to develop oil fields," he says.
"Besides, in the Gulf of Mexico there is much more opportunity to respond to an oil spill, and there are no opportunities in the Arctic. On the Arctic coast of Alaska, for example, there is not even a port that could serve as a base for a response operation," the scientist warns.
Main Consequences
In three months, during which crude oil flowed from a well at a depth of 1.5 km into the Gulf of Mexico, an oil slick covered thousands of square kilometers. In total, 4.9 million barrels of oil fell into the sea.800 thousand barrels were collected, approximately 265 thousand that rose to the surface were burned.
More than 8 million liters of chemicals were sprayed over the sea.
Coastal pollution
Oil began washing ashore in June 2010, polluting hundreds of miles of state coastline from Florida to Louisiana.In the first few weeks after the spill, the weather did not contribute to the pollution of the shores, and this gave the authorities time to take preventive measures. In particular, 4,000 km of barriers were placed in the sea.
The death of sea turtles
The declining population of sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico had been of concern to environmentalists even before the accident: they were dying in fishing nets, and their natural habitat was shrinking.After the oil spill, 25,000 turtle eggs were shipped from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic coast of Florida. The operation was seen as a way to prevent an entire generation of sea turtles from dying in polluted waters.
Death of birds
More than 120 bird species were affected by the oil spill. Ornithologists speak of thousands of individuals. More than half of them died due to contamination of feathers. American brown pelicans, which dive into the water for fish, suffered more than others. For migratory birds, it was possible to create a semblance of swamps by flooding agricultural land, which, according to ecologists, saved many birds.swamp pollution
The Gulf of Mexico region contains a number of coastal marshes that play a vital role in supporting the livelihoods of migratory birds.Favorable weather and prompt action by the authorities prevented the worst-case scenario. However, oil has seeped into some swamps and nature reserves.
The death of dolphins
Scientists are concerned about the sharp increase in the death rate of bottlenose dolphins, recorded after the oil spill. Ecologists believe that the real death rate could be 50 times higher than the official figures.In the first breeding season of dolphins after the accident, the number of dead cubs found on the shore increased sharply. The reasons for this phenomenon are not fully understood.
coral death
The Gulf of Mexico hosts tropical coral reefs, but it is difficult at this stage to assess the impact of the oil spill on their fragile ecosystem.Environmentalists say that if the oil completely covers the reef, then the coral is likely to die.
fish breeding
After the accident, fishing in a large part of the Gulf of Mexico was banned. Over the past year, the number of sharks has increased by 400%, shrimps - by 200%.However, scientists point out that a year is too short a time period to judge the impact of an oil spill, and disturbances in the food chain will manifest themselves in the long term.
On December 18, 2011, while being towed in the Sea of Okhotsk, the Kolskaya drilling platform sank with 67 people on it. Only 14 were saved. Drilling and oil platforms are rather complex engineering structures that are constantly exposed to various kinds of risks - from natural disasters to operational errors. The production of gas and oil on the sea shelf is inevitably accompanied by various kinds of accidents. There are many reasons for such disasters. These are storms, hurricanes, emergency explosions, fires, personnel errors, equipment breakdowns. Each individual accident unfolds according to its own scenario. Vesti.Ru remember the seven most severe accidents.
"Kola"
Towing of "Kolskaya" from the western coast of Kamchatka to Sakhalin began on December 11, 2011. There were 67 people on board. Five days later, the caravan in the Sea of Okhotsk fell into a storm zone. On the platform, the fairing of the nose support was torn off, the hull skin was damaged, and a list formed. On December 18, the captain gave a distress call. Only 14 people were rescued from the water alive. The bodies of 17 dead were raised from the water. The remaining 36 are considered missing.
"Bohai-II"
On November 25, 1979, while towing on the high seas, the Chinese Bohai-II drilling platform was hit by a 10-point storm. As a result of flooding of the pump room, the platform capsized and sank. 72 people died.
Alexander Keilland
In March 1980, the Norwegian drilling platform Alexander Keilland broke apart and capsized in the North Sea. Of the 212 people who were on the platform, 123 died. According to experts, the cause of the disaster was "metal fatigue."
ocean ranger
In September 1982, the American oil drilling platform Ocean Ranger capsized and sank off the coast of Canada. The reason is an unprecedented hurricane. The impacts of 15-meter waves broke the windows and flooded the living quarters. The ultra-reliable reinforced concrete structure, semi-submerged in the ocean, weighing tens of thousands of tons, which was considered absolutely unsinkable, received a dangerous roll. There were 84 people on the platform. No one managed to escape, as a result of ten days of searching, the bodies of only 22 dead were found.
Piper Alpha
In July 1988, the largest disaster in history occurred near England - on the Occidental Petroleum's Piper Alpha oil platform, as a result of an explosion that followed a gas leak, 167 people out of 226 who were on the platform at that time were killed, only 59 survived. Piper Alpha is the world's only fully burned out platform.
P-56 Petrobras
On March 16, 2001, P-56, the largest oil platform in the world, owned by Petrobras, exploded off the coast of Brazil. 10 oil workers were killed. On March 20, after a series of devastating explosions, the platform sank, causing irreparable damage to the environment.
deepwater horizon
The accident on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, which occurred on April 20, 2010, 80 km off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico at the BP field, has been recognized as the world's largest environmental disaster to date. During the explosion and fire on the platform, 11 people died and 17 were injured. For 152 days of fighting the consequences of the accident, about 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, the oil slick reached 75,000 square kilometers.
If the situation could not be brought under control, the scale of the consequences could be catastrophic, if not for the whole world, then at least for the entire Atlantic Ocean.
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the accident on the Deepwater Horizon platform in 2010 is considered one of the largest man-made disasters, as a result of which irreparable damage was caused to the environment.The Deepwater Horizon ultra-deep drilling platform was built by the shipbuilding company Hundai Industries (South Korea) by order of R&B Falcon (Transocean Ltd.). This platform was launched in 2001, and after some time it was leased to the British oil and gas company British Petroleum (BP). The lease term has been repeatedly extended, the last time - until the beginning of 2013.
In February 2010, BP began developing the Macondo field in the Gulf of Mexico. A well was drilled at a depth of 1500 meters.
Oil platform explosion
On April 20, 2010, a fire and explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform 80 km off the coast of the US state of Louisiana. The fire lasted more than 35 hours, unsuccessfully tried to extinguish it from the fire boats that arrived at the scene of the accident. On April 22, the platform sank in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
As a result of the accident, 11 people went missing, their searches were carried out until April 24, 2010 and did not yield any results. 115 people were evacuated from the platform, including 17 with injuries. Subsequently, world news agencies reported that two more people died during the liquidation of the consequences of the accident.
Oil spill
From April 20 to September 19, the liquidation of the consequences of the accident continued. Meanwhile, according to some experts, about 5,000 barrels of oil fell into the water every day. According to other sources, up to 100,000 barrels per day fell into the water, as the US Secretary of the Interior announced in May 2010.
By the end of April, the oil slick reached the mouth of the Mississippi River, and in July 2010, oil was discovered on the beaches of the US state of Texas. In addition, the underwater oil plume stretched for 35 km in length at a depth of more than 1000 meters.
For 152 days, about 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico through damaged well pipes. The area of the oil slick was 75,000 km².
Cleanup
After the Deepwater Horizon sank, attempts began to seal the well, and later began the elimination of the consequences of the oil spill and the fight against the spread of the oil slick.
Almost immediately after the accident, specialists put plugs on the damaged pipe, and began work on installing a steel dome, which was supposed to cover the damaged platform and prevent oil spills. The first installation attempt was not successful, and on May 13 it was decided to install a smaller dome. The oil leak was fully established only on August 4, due to the fact that drilling fluid and cement were pumped into the emergency well. For complete sealing of the well, two additional discharge wells had to be drilled, into which cement was also pumped. Full sealing was announced on September 19, 2010.
To eliminate the consequences, tugboats, barges, rescue boats, and BP submarines were raised. They were assisted by ships, aircraft and naval equipment of the Navy and the US Air Force. More than 1,000 people participated in the aftermath, and about 6,000 US National Guard troops were involved. Spraying of dispersants (active substances used to settle oil slicks) was used to limit the area of the oil slick. Booms were also installed to contain the spill area. Mechanical oil recovery was used, both with the help of special vessels and manually by volunteers on the coast of the United States. In addition, the experts decided to resort to controlled burning of oil slicks.
Incident investigation
According to an internal investigation by BP security officials, the causes of the accident were personnel errors, technical faults and design flaws in the oil platform itself. The prepared report stated that the rig staff misinterpreted pressure readings during a well leak test, causing a stream of hydrocarbons that had risen from the bottom of the well to fill the drilling platform through the vent. After the explosion, as a result of technical shortcomings of the platform, the anti-blow-out fuse, which was supposed to automatically plug the oil well, did not work.
In mid-September 2010, a report was published by the Bureau of Oceanic Resources Management, Regulation and Protection and the US Coast Guard. It contained 35 causes of the accident, with 21 of them citing BP as the sole culprit. In particular, the main reason was the neglect of safety standards to reduce the cost of well development. In addition, the platform employees did not receive comprehensive information about the work on the well, and as a result, their ignorance was superimposed on other errors, which led to well-known consequences. Other reasons cited include poor well design that did not provide sufficient oil and gas barriers, insufficient cementing, and last-minute changes to the well development project.
Transocean Ltd, the owners of the oil platform, and Halliburton, the company that carried out the subsea cementing of the well, were named partly responsible.
Litigation and compensation
The trial of the oil spill in the Mexico spill over the British company BP will begin on February 25, 2013 in New Orleans (USA). In addition to lawsuits from the federal authorities, the British company was also sued by US states and municipalities. In accordance with US law, BP will have to pay a fine ranging from 1.1 to 4.3 thousand dollars for each barrel of oil spilled as a result of the accident. In February 2013, it became known that the company managed to negotiate with the US authorities to reduce the amount of penalties by $3.4 billion. The reason for the change in the amount of compensation was the fact that 810,000 barrels of oil were collected and did not enter the environment. Thus, the size of the maximum fine is $17.6 billion. The final amount of compensation will depend on the court order.
In addition, in the spring of 2012, an agreement was concluded with the Claimants' Committee on the amount of compensation: more than 100,000 American entrepreneurs and individuals will receive compensation in the amount of more than $7.8 billion.
Also in November 2012, BP agreed with the US authorities to pay $4.5 billion in fines over five years.
Environmental implications
After the accident, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico were one-third closed for fishing, while an almost complete ban on fishing was introduced.
1,100 miles of state coastline from Florida to Louisiana were polluted, and dead marine life was constantly found on the shore. In particular, about 600 sea turtles, 100 dolphins, more than 6,000 birds and many other mammals were found dead. As a result of the oil spill, mortality among whales and dolphins increased in subsequent years. Ecologists estimate that the death rate of bottlenose dolphins has increased 50 times.
Tropical coral reefs located in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico also suffered enormous damage.
Oil has even seeped into the waters of coastal reserves and marshes, which play an important role in maintaining the life of wildlife and migratory birds.
According to recent studies, today the Gulf of Mexico has almost completely recovered from the damage suffered. American oceanographers have tracked the growth of reef-building corals that cannot live in polluted water, and found that corals reproduce and grow at their usual rhythm. Biologists also note a slight increase in the average water temperature in the Gulf of Mexico.
Some researchers expressed concerns about the impact of the oil accident on the climate-forming Gulf Stream. It has been suggested that the current cooled by 10 degrees and began to break up into separate undercurrents. Indeed, some weather anomalies (such as severe winter frosts in Europe) have occurred since the oil spill. However, scientists still do not agree on whether the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is the primary cause of climate change and whether it affected the Gulf Stream.
Photo report on the accident on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. On April 22, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon platform, operated by the oil and gas company British Petroleum (British Petroleum, BP), sank off the coast of Louisiana after a 36-hour fire. An oil spill has begun. The platform on which the accident occurred belonged to the Swiss company Transocean. American corporations Halliburton Energy Services and Cameron International were directly involved in preparing the platform for operation. She was operated by BP at the time of the accident. The accident resulted in the death of 11 people, more than 5 million barrels of crude oil spilled into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Up to 40 thousand barrels of oil (more than 6 million liters) flowed into the waters of the bay daily. BP made numerous and mostly unsuccessful attempts to repair the leak. By March 2011, 530 miles remained uncleaned, according to Mike Hvozd, spokesman for the Joint Oil Rig Recovery Center. The coast of Florida has been completely cleared, almost completely the coast of Alabama and Mississippi. Uncleaned areas remained in Louisiana, including part of the coastline and numerous swamps. Chemical pollution as a result of this catastrophe can lead to enormous consequences, which can already today be the cause of the climate attraction that is taking place on the planet. Site "Survival" offers to view photo of the consequences of an accident on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico:
