BP/Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Prepared by Rusty SturkenDuluth Middle School

Gwinnett County SchoolsJune/July, 2010

Image- a view of the oil in the Gulf of Mexico from underwater is fromhttp://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/06/09/gal_oil_spill_03.jpg

Deepwater Horizon Oil Platform being transported

http://www.ngoilgas.com/media/media-news/news-thumb/100421/deepwater_oil_rig.jpg

Deepwater Horizon Oil Platform

Timeline The Wall Street Journal reported that….• At 11 a.m. on April 20th BP (oil company leasing the oil

rig) and Transocean (oil rig operator) employees had a disagreement about how to start shutting down the well.

• It appears from the article that heavy drilling fluid was removed from pipes in the well. Removing heavy drilling fluid prior to temporarily sealing up a well and abandoning it is normal, but questions have emerged about whether the crew started the process without taking other precautionary measures against gas rising into the pipe.

• Less than 11 hours after the meeting, the well had a blowout, an uncontrolled release of oil and gas, killing 11 workers. The platform caught on fire, then sank.

From http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704717004575268302434395796.html?KEYWORDS=argument+on+deepwater+horizon

Deepwater Horizon on fire

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Timeline continued• April 20, 2010 - Explosion and fire on Transocean Ltd's drilling

rig Deepwater Horizon licensed to BP; 11 workers were killed. The rig was drilling beneath about 5,000 feet of water and 13,000 feet under the seabed.

• April 22 - The Deepwater Horizon rig, valued at more than $560 million, sank and a 5-mile-long oil slick formed.

• April 25 - Efforts to activate the well's blowout preventer failed.• May 7 - An attempt to place a containment dome over the

spewing well failed when the device was rendered useless by frozen hydrocarbons that clogged it.

• May 29 - BP said the complex "top kill" maneuver to plug the well has failed

• June 2 - BP tried another capping strategy • Early July- “A Whale” superskimmer arrives to help • July 7- Oil and natural gas continue to leak from the failed Blow

Out Preventer but some oil and natural gas is “captured” and “flared” each day

• July 12- NBC reported that each day up to 60,000 barrels of oil escape into the Gulf of Mexico.

Info from Reuters.com and BP.com

Deepwater Horizon on fire

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Deepwater Horizon on fire

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Still picture of video feed from well location on ocean floor

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/05/28/alg_screen-grab_oil-spill.jpg

Links • Live video feed from “Skandi ROV1“

• Live video feed from "Skandi ROV2“

• Interactive oil spill map at cnn.com

Oil is collected in skimming boom attached to the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Cypress. It has been a month and a half in the ongoing Photo: Flickr/Deepwater Horizon ResponseFrom http://earth911.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Skimming-operations-in-the-Gulf-of-Mexico-300x199.jpg

Oil Skimming Operation

Oil-covered Brown Pelican

Image from nationalgeographic.com

A brown pelican struggles on East Grand Terre Island, Louisiana,

Image from nationalgeographic.com

The costs to wildlife• The NOAA Ship Pisces reported a dead 25-

foot sperm whale was located 150 miles due south of Pascagoula, Mississippi, 77 miles from the oil spill site

• Of the 469 turtles verified from April 30 to June 17, a total of 360 stranded turtles were found dead, 37 stranded alive.

• On June 29th CNN reported that the Audubon Institute was caring for over 100 turtles that were “oiled”.

• Of the total 46 stranded dolphins, 43 dolphins stranded dead, three stranded alive.

Some info from http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/dwh.php?entry_id=809

Satellite Image on May 17, 2010

From Google Earth per http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_7ZYqYi4xigk/S_cPSuJ7CMI/AAAAAAAAGLI/z8yetX40EPI/s400/spill-517.png

Satellite Image on June 28, 2010

From Google Earth

The Clean Up

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/25/article-1289473-09D3B193000005DC-241_468x306.jpg

Deploying oil booms on a beach in Louisiana

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“Vessels of Opportunity” deploy oil booms

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/images/Vessels_of_Opportunity_boom1_375.jpg

Oil booms laid out at Breton National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/images/GoM_images_15_375x200.jpg

The 'A Whale' skimmer, a 1,100-foot ship, converted into a "super skimmer," has arrived in the Gulf of

Mexico to assist with cleanup of the BP oil spill.

From Reuters?? Image location is http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/0702-a-whale-super-skimmer/8260935-1-eng-US/0702-a-whale-super-skimmer_full_380.jpg

Free Jimmy Buffett Concert in Gulf Shores, Alabama

Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images North America

http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/CMT+Presents+Jimmy+Buffett+Friends+Live+Gulf+cHjtz2FOz6ol.jpg

Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images North America)http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/CMT+Presents+Jimmy+Buffett+Friends+Live+Gulf+IyhYJTNrdDPl.jpg

Free Jimmy Buffett Concert in Gulf Shores, Alabama

http://media.al.com/entertainment-press-register/photo/dsc-0020jpg-ae2e933716819c0f_large.jpg

The Clean Up• As of June 28th-Two systems continue to

collect oil and gas flowing from the Deepwater Horizon's failed blow-out preventer (BOP) and transport them to vessels on the surface.

BP said it would donate 5million dollars and revenue from oil recovered from the oil spill to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

From bp.com at http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7063047

The Clean UpAs of June 28th-

• BP announced that it is now spending 100 million dollars per day on the clean up, spending $2.65 billion so far

• A 20 billion dollar compensation fund has been set up by BP

Info from Reuters.com

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