In April 20 th 2010, there was tragedy of the largest oil spill in industry ,named Deepwater

Horizon oil spill, also called Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Deepwater Horizon was an oil rig built in
the Gulf of Mexico (about 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana) by an offshore-drilling corporation
called Transocean, but it was leased and maintained by the British oil company BP. On the night
of April 20 a surge of natural gas blasted through a concrete core. The Core were likely too weak
to withstand the pressure because they were composed of a concrete mixture that used nitrogen
gas to accelerate curing. It Exposed, then ignited and exploded. Two days later the burning rig
collapsed entirely.
The failure of the BOP (Blow Out Preventer) directly led to the oil spill and several incident of the
rig. investigators focused on the failure of a component on the well’s blowout preventer that is
supposed to close off a well spewing out of control. The device, called a blind shear ram, is the
only part of the blowout preventer that can completely seal the well. However, the pipe buckling
that occurred on the night of April 20 prevented the blind shear ram from functioning properly
Investigators also revealed for the first time that there were two instances of miswiring and two
backup battery failures affecting the electronic and hydraulic controls for the BOP’s blind shear
ram. It causes battery failure, disabled the BOP’s “blue pod and yellow pod” – a control system
designed to activate the blind shear ram in an emergency . Thus the pod was likely able to operate
the blind shear ram on the night of April 20
Despite the multiple maintenance problems found in the Deepwater Horizon BOP, which could
have been detected prior to the accident, CSB investigators concluded the blind shear ram likely
did close on the night of April 20, and the drill pipe could have been successfully sealed but not
for the buckling of the pipe.
Blow out Preventer and Blind Shear Ram Picture source :
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/06/21/us/20100621-
bop.html?_r=0
Source :
https://www.britannica.com/event/Deepwater-Horizon-oil-spill-of-2010
https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/deepwater-horizon-blowout-preventer-failed-due-to-
unrecognized-pipe-buckling-report-says/