Kyle Ivory Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill 01/06/2010

10R [FINAL COPY] Mr Chipchase

One the 20th of April 2010 a fire broke out causing an explosion aboard one of British
Petroleum’s oil rigs just off the coast off the Gulf of Mexico claiming 11 lives. The
cause of the explosion is still unknown but what they do know is that it caused the
worst man made environmental disaster to date.

Authorities immediately started to try to put the blaze but to no avail. The fire was
near to being put out when the structure collapsed. The oil rig sunk to a depth of over
1.5 km and started spewing forth a large amount of oil, first estimated to be around
5,000 barrels by BP.

BP withheld a video from the public and even the USA government. Once this video
was brought to light the amount of oil being spilt was more than quadrupled. The
amount of oil being spilt is at 50,000 barrels of oil a day. This adds up to over 22
million litres spilt since the start of the disaster. Making it already almost double the
amount the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 lost.

The cleanup cost is already at an estimated cost of $5 Billion US. This excludes any
wildlife restoration as the effects are going to be everlasting. The spill is the worst
environmental disaster in recorded history. Nearly a third of sea and animal life in the
effected zone has died, suffocated by the sticky layer of oil that now coats an area
bigger than Scotland. It is not just the oil doing it, BP again ignored persistent
requests by the USA government to not use chemical dispersant on the oil as it
could have a devastating effect on wild life. It has.

The USA government took control of the operation once it found that BP was
withholding the video of the leak. The government has urged BP into making hasty
decision and BP has complied. The USA government is reliant on BP to solve the
problem because the USA does not have any technology or tactics that are better
than BP’s at solving the problem. BP specializes at Oil rigging the USA government
does not. What has kept the industry from attempting to fix the leak is the depth
factor. At 1.5 km underwater it is impossible to send down a person to that depth
because they would be crushed by the water to a sphere no bigger than the average
marble in less than two seconds. Also submarine equipment I not useful because the
rig sits at 15,718 meters below sea level and the deepest submarine dive recorded is
10,916 meters. The industry has had to get machines and robots to try and fix it. The
water at that depth has an average temperature of -68° C but because of the
pressure it does not turn to ice. None the less any appliance or material that is used
to plug the hole has to have a high tolerance tho the cold. BP’s first attempt to slow
the oil flow was to put a “cap” on it. Doing this requires drilling it out so that the cap
will fit. This will temporarily increase the flow but will slow down once the cap is
secured in place. The cap does not completely stop the oil flow but it does make it
better than when they started. This failed because the cap froze, became brittle and
shattered. The second attempt was using a “top kill” method.

The Top Kill method involves putting heavy “kill” mud into the well so that it reduces
the pressure which in turn slows the oil flow. Such a feat has not been tried at such a
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Kyle Ivory Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill 01/06/2010
10R [FINAL COPY] Mr Chipchase
depth but it is the quickest method that will completely stop the flow. Once the mud
has stopped the flow cement is pumped in to finally seal off the exit point. A total of
30,000 barrels of “kill” mud was used to try and block up the pipe but to no avail. The
pressure was too great.

The United States of America President, Barak Obama, came under immense
pressure from the media about the situation. People believed that he was to blame
and that it was him all along that caused the delay. The truth is that Obama had a
meeting six hours after the initial explosion to discuss the matter. They then did not
of course know that the rig was going to collapse and what a horrific event it was
going to be.

The oil has killed millions of fish and thousands of birds so far. It has been damaging
the local ecosystem, a system that money cannot repair. The chemical dispersants
don’t get rid of the oil they just disperse it to other areas and thin it out but introduce
it to other areas by doing so. The chemical failed to work as effectively as it has in
the past because the amount of oil was too great to be dispersed to get the oil to
water ratio back to normal. If anything the dispersant wasn’t worth using it also
poisons the wildlife and didn’t really get anything done.

BP is losing its main source of oil the rig was one of its biggest and all the potential
oil is going to be wasted instead of sold on and made into petrol for the people of
America. BP has made a huge loss in potential profit, a huge loss in shares value
and has faced over 30,000 law suits because of the incident. BP has already paid off
the Minor half of them but that already amounts to $40 million loss and is expected to
lose at least $100 million once these have been paid off. Bigger companies do have
the right to sue e.g. Fisheries or tourism locations.

As well as this one rig causing major losses, Barak Obama has suspended all oil
drilling licences in American waters for 6 months and has completely cancelled a
planned drilling project off the coast of Virginia. The drilling was announced by
Obama’s own government to fulfil America’s petrol needs. Cancelling this has made
oil prices continue to raise as there I no site of a new source in the many long
decades to come.

BP is currently trying to slow the rate of oil leaking by putting a “cap” on the oil
leakage. The new cap is to be transported by machines down to the resting ground
of the rig being circulated by warm water to stop the cap from breaking It expects the
operation to halve the amount of oil flowing out. It will then complete a relief well at
the end of august, finally stopping the flow.