The 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (also known as the BP Oil Spill) in the Gulf of Mexico is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. Approximately 4.9 million barrels of crude oil (compared to the Exxon Valdez's 250-750,000 barrel estimate) gushed into the gulf after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The explosion itself killed 11 men and injured 17 others. After almost three months of oil spilling into the waters, the leak was stopped by capping the leaking wellhead.
The spill caused great damage to marine and wildlife habitats in the Gulf region. Furthermore, it negatively impacted the area's fishing and tourism industries. For example 4,200 square miles of the Gulf were closed to shrimping after tar balls were discovered in shrimping nets. Furthermore, oil directly affected over 320 miles of the Louisiana coast. Many beaches, wetlands, and estuaries were damaged as a result of the spill.
Many efforts were made to contain the oil spilling into the Gulf. Dispersants were used to prevent the spreading of the crude oil, and although many of these have significant side-effects, they were considered most effective for the clean-up effort. Furthermore, containment booms were used in an effort to protect shorelines and islands; however, their effectiveness was questioned due to their inability to cover all affected areas.
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| Deepwater Horizon Rig after Explosion |
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| Crude Oil Surfaces in the Gulf of Mexico |
In an effort to minimized lawsuits against the company, BP officials agreed to create a $20 billion spill response fund. BP set up the fund to compensate people and companies affected by the spill.
BP's CEO, Robert Dudley, offered an apology in March of 2011at a high-profile energy conference.
The question of apology for this incident is very controversial. Firstly, who to blame? The blame falls on various parties in this issue. BP is at fault for continuing to run a rig even though it was exhibiting problems just days before the disaster. They are also at fault for not properly maintaining various aspects of the rig and not following proper protocol. Some people (including BP) believe that companies like Haliburton (which did the cement work on the rig) are at fault for not doing proper testing during development of the rig. They also believe the developer of a malfunctioning sensor on the rig is at fault for developing a faulty part which in part led to the disaster. Furthermore, the US government may be at fault for not doing closer inspections of these off-shore rigs. So, is BP the only one responsible for apologizing, and if not, why haven't other companies made public apologies?
In addition, there is great controversy regarding whether or not BP's compensation is enough for their actions. Their spill response fund is a great effort to provide compensation, however, many argue that it is very difficult to apply for and receive compensation. Furthermore, many of those who receive compensation forfeit their right to sue BP in the future. These and other aspects of the fund portray BP as solely interested in protecting itself and saving money--not interested in the betterment of people, wildlife, and companies affected by the spill.
Overall, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill is a catastrophe which raises deep questions and concern regarding the response of large corporations to their mistakes.
I agree that this is a great topic to write about. The environmental and economical impacts are tremendous and will still be important for years to come. My engineering academy teacher last semester was Professor Meshkati who works with the Systems Engineering students. He was on the team that congress had research the spill and has done extensive research on this very topic. Just a suggestion, but if you are looking for some good firsthand knowledge into the spill, and what specifically happened to cause it, such as faulty parts or lack of oversight, you might want to shoot him an email and im sure he would be happy to talk to you
ReplyDeleteI, too, think the oil spill is a very open-ended topic. There are many opinions; they may not necessarily disagree with each other, but there is a whole spectrum of beliefs about who should apologize. I would suggest spending a good deal of your paper on the "who?" aspect.
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