Deep-Water Horizon Oil Spill

---

The oil spill, also known as, leakage of petroleum onto a large body of water, such as the ocean or the sea. There have many oil spillages over the years, and the one that we will be talking about is the Mexican oil spillage that happened on April 20th, 2010. This oil spillage was one of the biggest oil spillages in history. Unfortunately, this industrial disaster caused the Deepwater Horizon oil rig to sink into the Gulf of Mexica. An underwater video had uncovered that BP (British Petroleum Pipeline) had leaked about 40 miles off Louisiana’s coast, along the seabed. It also had killed 11 innocent people. 

Deepwater Horizon oil spill was an oil plant that works in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, which collapsed and completely sank on April 20, 2010. This concluded with 11 employee’s death, on the Deepwater Horizon and the worst oil leak in the history of underwater oil explorations. This process concluded to a total of 87-day duration, and 4 million barrels of oil spilled from the ruined Macondo, which was courageously capped on July 15, 2010. BP has filed a lawsuit in Federal Court on 15 December 2010, and some other defendants claimed to be responsible for the leak.

On July 15, 2010, BP announced that it had successfully plugged the oil leak using a tightly fitted cap. The cap, weighing 75 tons and standing 30 feet (9.1 m) high, is now bolted to the failed blowout preventer. They had planned to make relief wells and had to be built adjacent to the well that was already there and penetrates the well from the reservoir. They had to put cement in and recreate the rock that had enclosed it before the oil spill. This was an extraordinarily difficult process. This process was bound to take months, they kept thinking that there must be a quicker solution. They were quite lucky when they decided to construct, what is called, a Capping Stack. Which was miraculously ready by early July. 

The Deepwater Horizon oil leak is still remembered to this day, and as of right now, is still known as the biggest oil leak in history. Unfortunately, the oil spill had taken the lives of 11 innocent people and had lasted, exactly, 87 days. The responsible company was British Petroleum Pipeline, better known as BP, which was fined about $4.5 billion criminal penalty – that in fact was the largest fine given in the U. S. The Deepwater Horizon was an oil rig that exploded off the coast of Louisiana on April 20, 2010.

Written By: Twarita Verma