On April 20th, 2010, methane gas from an underwater well at the Gulf of Mexico shot up under high pressure and out of the drill, expanded and then exploded, causing 11 workers missing and never found. On the afternoon of the April 22nd, 2010, a large oil slick began to leak through the former rig site, and after an unsuccessfully attempt to cap the well, BP, the oil company which proposed the drill, announced that a damaged wellhead was “a very serious spill” leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. An estimate by the Riser Insertion Tube Tool is between 25,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil a day, the largest oil spill in US history. The US government has named BP responsible for the spill, and another common name for the spill is “BP oil spill”, but was it only the fault of BP? I believe that there were multiple parties that could do something before it happened and should be held responsible for the spill, include the Minerals Management Service, Halliburton, a multinational engineering firm, and BP, the operator of the rig.
The well was in the boundaries of the United States, so obviously, something could be done by the United States Federal Government, especially the Minerals Management Service. According to the article “Leaking Oil Well Lacked Safeguard Device” from The Wall Street Journal, the oil well spewing crude in the Gulf of Mexico was lacking a remote-control shut-off switch, called the acoustic switch, used in two other major oil-producing countries, Norway and Brazil, as last-resort protection against underwater spills. The US doesn’t mandate the use of an acoustic switch on offshore rigs, which directly resulted in the lack of it on the Deepwater Horizon. If the device was used, the crew could attempt to trigger an underwater valve that shuts down the well even if the oil rig itself was damaged or evacuated. So why did the US not require the device? Studies show it is because they question the device was capable of cutting through the pipes. If the Minerals Management Service didn’t have such high doubts about the device, and made them mandatory for oil rigs within the boundaries of the United States, the oil spill of nearly 40 million gallons of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, and still increasing at a rate of approximately 840,000 gallons per day might not have happened.
The Essay on BP’s Response to the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico
Many people have believed that British Petroleum did not respond very effectively to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The biggest complaint has been that the government and BP gave inaccurate estimates on the severity of the oil spill itself. When most people were thinking it was just going to be a regular oil spill that could be cleaned up easily it turned out to be anything but. BP was ...
Halliburton’s Energies Services Group, the main segment of Halliburton from Texas, which ran and cemented the production casing of the oil rig. According to Transocean, the operator of the drilling platform, Halliburton workers has just finished with pumping cement to fill the space between the pipe and the sides of the hole, when the explosion that caused 11 deaths and 17 casualties occured. According to oil experts, the timing of the initial blast points to problems with cementing, typically one of the most troublesome parts of the drilling process. According to a study by the US Minerals Management Service in 2007, 18 of 39 well blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico in a 14-year period were mainly caused by cementing. There has also been oil leaking incidents involving Halliburton, including in the Tumor Sea last august. This could be only a coincidence, but Halliburton could also be the main “contributor” to this infamous oil spill.
Last, but not least, BP. A whistleblower, hired by BP, discovered that the drilling platform in Atlanta had been operating without a majority of the engineers – approved documents it needed to run safely which lead the platform to be vulnerable to this catastrophic disaster. BP put profit before safety and law, and in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, BP not only lacked the remote control acoustic shut off switch mentioned earlier, BP also cut corners on testing cement, misled about its ability to prevent spills in deep water, and overruled crew objections on the day of the explosion. After the explosion, BP also deliberately underestimated the rate of spill. BP always had a reputation of disregarding the environment, this not being the first. On October 25, 2007, BP pled guilty to a criminal violation of the Clean Water Act and paid a $20 million fine as the result of failure to maintain a clear pipeline and safety valve in the North Slope in 2006. There is no doubt why the government put BP responsible.
The Essay on Bp Oil Spill 3
BP is a British global energy company which is the third largest energy company and the fourth largest company in the world. As a multinational oil company, BP is the UK’s largest corporation, with its headquarters in London. BP’s headquarters is in Houston, Texas. The company is among the largest private sector energy corporations in the world, and one of the six private sector oil ...
I believe that there are multiple causes of the largest oil spill in United States history, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. The main causes that lead to this disaster according to my reasearch are problems with the cement, the lack of the acoustic shut off switch, and the overruling of the crew who noticed issues. This distributes the responsibility of the oil spill among the Minerals Management Service branch of the Ferderal Government, Halliburton, and BP. Although there are still controversy in who is to blame for the issue, the main duty right now is for all forces to combine and find a way to stop the oil spill before the environment and economy gets damaged further.
Works Cited
“Who’s to Blame for the Oil Spill?” Conservation and Environmental Science News. Web. 15 June 2010. http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0504-hance_oilspill.html.
“Leaking Oil Well Lacked Safeguard Device.” The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal. Web. 15 June 2010. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704423504575212031417936798.html.
“Who’s to Blame for the Gulf Oil Gusher? We Break It down | Grist.” Grist | Environmental News, Commentary, Advice. Web. 15 June 2010. http://www.grist.org/article/2010-06-03-whos-to-blame-for-the-gulf-oil-gusher-we-break-it-down/.
“Gulf Oil Spill: Who’s to Blame? BP, Halliburton and the Feds Are All Implicated | BNET Energy Blog | BNET.” BNET Industries | Top News, Analysis, Statistics, Research and Trends | BNET. Web. 15 June 2010. http://industry.bnet.com/energy/10004219/gulf-oil-spill-whos-to-blame-bp-halliburton-and-the-feds-are-all-implicated/.
The Term Paper on The BP Oil Spill
“Thank God men cannot fly and lay waste to sky, as well as the earth,” said Henry David Thoreau on environmental damage. The BP, or British Petroleum, Gulf oil spill has been widely referred to as the biggest environmental disaster that the United States has ever faced, with over four million gallons of oil pouring into the waters off the Mexican Gulf Coast. The BP oil spill occurred in April of ...
Helmore, Edward. “Dick Cheney’s Halliburton Implicated in BP’s Deepwater Oil Spill | Business | The First Post.” The First Post | News, Comment, Opinion, People, Arts, Sport & Life. Web. 15 June 2010. http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/62899,business,dick-cheney-halliburton-implicated-in-bp-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill.
“How Much Oil Has Leaked Into the Gulf of Mexico?” CHESSNOID. Web. 15 June 2010. http://www.totalnoid.com/2010/06/03/how-much-oil-has-leaked-into-the-gulf-of-mexico
Leopold, Jason. “Whistleblower: BP Risks More Massive Catastrophes in Gulf.” T R U T H O U T. 30 Apr. 2010. Web. 16 June 2010. http://www.truth-out.org/whistlelower-bps-other-offshore-drilling-project-gulf-vulnerable-catastrophe59027.
