On April 20, 2010, 80 kilometers off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, killing 11 workers, the rig itself collapsed, and tons of crude oil spilled into the ocean. About 5 million barrels of oil entered the Gulf of Mexico, polluting the coast, destroying the economy of cities and destroying the environment.
The study of the disaster is still ongoing, considering the effectiveness of dispersants and the impact of long-term effects on human and animal health.
The oil spill that followed the accident was the largest in US history and turned the accident into one of the largest man-made disasters in the world. negative influence to the ecological situation.
In this post, we look at what happened before and one year after this disaster.
Firefighters fight a fire at the Deepwater Horizon tower off the coast of Louisiana on April 21, 2010. (Reuters/U.S. Coast Guard)
A burning Deepwater Horizon tower in the Gulf of Mexico, 80 km southeast of Venice, Louisiana, on April 20. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A ship collects oil after the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 28, 2010. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
A dispersant-spraying aircraft over the waters of the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
A flock of dolphins in the oily waters of Chandele Bay. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A column of smoke from burning oil off the coast of Louisiana on June 9, 2010. (Reuters/Petty Officer First Class John Masson/U.S. Coast Guard)
Crude oil on the shores of Orange Beach, Alabama, on June 12, 2010. A large number of oil reached the coast of Alabama, leaving behind puddles with a density of 13-15 cm in some places. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
A juvenile heron dies in oil-contaminated thickets after an oil spill in Barataria Bay on May 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Defense Fund Expert environment Angelina Freeman takes an oil sample in Barataria Bay. (Reuters/Sean Gardner)
Reuters photographer Lee Celano walks in oil-polluted brush near Pass-a-Loutre, Louisiana, on May 20, 2010. (Reuters/Matthew Biggs)
A NASA satellite image of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. (Reuters/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
Underwater coral at the bottom of the northern Gulf of Mexico, near the site of an oil spill in September 2010. Scientists are checking whether the catastrophe harmed the corals. (AP Photo/Discovre Team 2010)
Vessels helping to drill a deviated well at sunset on September 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Courtney Kemp, 27, mourns her husband, Roy Watt Kemp, who died in the Deepwater Horizon explosion in Jonesville, Louisiana. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Raindrops on an oil puddle near the crash site. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
A northern gannet affected by an oil spill is being washed at a rescue center wildlife at Fort Jackson on July 1, 2010. (Reuters/Sean Gardner)
The Q4000 vessel hauls an explosion-damaged blowout valve on September 4, 2010. The valve, which was removed from the tower and replaced with a new one, will be taken for examination. (Reuters/Petty Officer 1st Class Thomas Blue/U.S. Coast Guard)
Hundreds of cranes and boats sail the calm waters of Port Fourchon on December 3, 2010 in Golden Meadow, Louisiana. The bustling port froze after a ban on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. (AP Photo/Kerry Maloney)
Healthy pink spoonbills over Cat Island in Barataria Bay, near Myrtle Grove, on March 31. (Reuters/Sean Gardner)
Tulane University ecologist Jessica Henkel sets up a net to catch incoming birds to collect blood, feces and feathers at Fourchon Beach on April 1. This is part research project about the consequences of an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which could affect the birds that stop here during their migration. "It's easier to spot a dead pelican on a beach than the aftermath of a disaster that could come up in the future," says Jessica. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Workers clean up oil national park Perdido Key in Pensacola, Florida on March 10. Work to clean up the beaches along the Gulf of Mexico is still ongoing. (Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
A great blue heron climbs a barrier used to protect a beach from an oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon on June 7, 2010 in Pensacola, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Marine products company owner Darlene Kimball greets customers at the company's office in Pass Christian, Mississippi, on March 29. Kimball, who has never been compensated for her damages after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, is afraid to even think about where the local government spent the BP funds. (AP Photo/Jason Bronis)
A dolphin named Louie at the Dolphin Research Center communicates with veterinarian Kara Field February 8 in Marathon, Florida. The dolphin was found on September 2, 2010 - it washed up on the beach in Port Fourchon in Louisiana, it was completely saturated with oil. Since then, he has been cared for in research and educational center marine mammals in the Florida Keys. Louis arrived at the research facility after being brought back to life at the New Orleans Institute. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Oil-covered dead grass mixed with newly grown grass in Barataria Bay, near Myrtle Grove, Louisiana, on March 31. (Reuters/Sean Gardner)
A dead sea turtle washed ashore at Pass Christian on April 16. Local activist Shirley Tillman found 20 dead turtles in the state of Mississippi. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Sunset over marshlands in Barataria Bay on April 13. The Gulf of Barataria with its swamps was the most affected by the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Hans Holbrook in swamps filled with birdsong speakers at the annual Christmas Bird Count in Grand Isle, Louisiana, December 22, 2010. 60,000 birdwatchers from across the Western Hemisphere flock here in the winter to count the birds in these areas and donate the lists to the Audubon Society. This tradition has been going on for 110 years. (AP Photo/Sean Gardner)
Guests enjoy seafood from the Gulf of Mexico during the "Lunch on the Sand: Bay Celebration" event in Gulf Shores, Alabama on April 17. Celebrity chef Guy Firi set the table for 500 people in honor of the cleanup of the beach after the disaster a year ago. (Michael Spooneybarger/ AP Images for Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism)
A worker scans a beach for oil residue in Pensacola, Florida on March 10. (Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
Louisiana Wildlife Conservation and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham with a handful of oil-covered dead grass at Jimmy's Bay in Plackmines Parish, Louisiana. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Researchers from the Audubon Institute, the National Institute of Oceanography and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries release oil-rescued sea turtles back into the Gulf of Mexico 72 km off the coast of Louisiana on October 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Price Billiot at a fishing spot in the fishing village of Point-O-Shan in Louisiana on January 28, 2011. Billiot survives in part thanks to the $65,000 BP PLC paid him in June to help pay for the loss of the business. Even before the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the American-Indian village was on the verge of collapse due to social change and loss of coastal areas. Now Indians, who have been fishing all their lives, are dependent on Kenneth Feinberg, the man handing out billions of dollars of checks for disaster damage. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
The sun reflects off the blue water where the Deepwater Horizon once stood, almost a year later. The ugly spots of last summer have turned into fading memories, as if proving that nature tends to regenerate itself. However, this is only a shiny surface, the image of which can be deceiving. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
On December 18, 2011, while being towed in the Sea of Okhotsk, the Kolskaya drilling platform sank with 67 people on it. Only 14 were saved. Drilling and oil platforms are rather complex engineering structures that are constantly exposed to various kinds of risks - from natural disasters to operational errors. The production of gas and oil on the sea shelf is inevitably accompanied by various kinds of accidents. There are many reasons for such disasters. These are storms, hurricanes, emergency explosions, fires, personnel errors, equipment breakdowns. Each individual accident unfolds according to its own scenario. Vesti.Ru remember the seven most severe accidents.
"Kola"
Towing "Kolskaya" with west coast Kamchatka to Sakhalin began on December 11, 2011. There were 67 people on board. Five days later, the caravan in the Sea of Okhotsk fell into a storm zone. On the platform, the fairing of the nose support was torn off, the hull skin was damaged, and a list formed. On December 18, the captain gave a distress call. Only 14 people were rescued from the water alive. The bodies of 17 dead were raised from the water. The remaining 36 are considered missing.
"Bohai-II"
On November 25, 1979, while towing on the high seas, the Chinese Bohai-II drilling platform was hit by a 10-point storm. As a result of flooding of the pump room, the platform capsized and sank. 72 people died.
Alexander Keilland
In March 1980, the Norwegian drilling platform Alexander Keilland broke apart and capsized in the North Sea. Of the 212 people who were on the platform, 123 died. According to experts, the cause of the disaster was "metal fatigue."
ocean ranger
In September 1982, the American oil drilling platform Ocean Ranger capsized and sank off the coast of Canada. The reason is an unprecedented hurricane. The impacts of 15-meter waves broke the windows and flooded the living quarters. The ultra-reliable reinforced concrete structure, semi-submerged in the ocean, weighing tens of thousands of tons, which was considered absolutely unsinkable, received a dangerous roll. There were 84 people on the platform. No one managed to escape, as a result of ten days of searching, the bodies of only 22 dead were found.
Piper Alpha
In July 1988, the largest disaster in history occurred near England - on the Occidental Petroleum's Piper Alpha oil platform, as a result of an explosion that followed a gas leak, 167 people out of 226 who were on the platform at that time were killed, only 59 survived. Piper Alpha is the world's only fully burned out platform.
P-56 Petrobras
On March 16, 2001, P-56, the largest oil platform in the world, owned by Petrobras, exploded off the coast of Brazil. 10 oil workers were killed. On March 20, after a series of devastating explosions, the platform sank, causing irreparable damage to the environment.
deepwater horizon
The accident on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, which occurred on April 20, 2010, 80 km off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico at the BP field, has been recognized as the world's largest environmental disaster to date. During the explosion and fire on the platform, 11 people died and 17 were injured. For 152 days of fighting the consequences of the accident, about 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, the oil slick reached 75,000 square kilometers.
If the situation could not be brought under control, the scale of the consequences could be catastrophic, if not for the whole world, then at least for the entire Atlantic Ocean.
In pursuit of oil, a person goes into the tundra, climbs mountains and conquers the seabed. But oil does not always surrender without a fight, and as soon as a person loses his vigilance, "black gold" turns into a real black death for all living things. This happened quite recently in the Gulf of Mexico, where the state-of-the-art DeepWater Horizon oil platform dealt a crushing blow to nature and human pride.
Explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform: an easy way to destroy the environment
An object: oil platform DeepWater Horizon, 80 km off the coast of Louisiana (USA), Gulf of Mexico.
The ultra-deepwater oil platform was leased by BP to develop the promising Macondo field. The length of the platform reached 112 m, width - 78 m, height - 97.4 m, it went under water by 23 meters and had a mass of over 32 thousand tons.
Victims: 13 people, 11 of them died during the fire, 2 more - during the aftermath. 17 people were injured varying degrees gravity.
Source: US Coast Guard
The reasons catastrophes
At major disasters there is no one single reason, which was confirmed by the explosion of the DeepWater Horizon oil platform. This accident was the result of a whole chain of violations and technical malfunctions. Experts say that a catastrophe on the platform was bound to happen, and it was only a matter of time.
Interestingly, several parallel investigations into the causes of the disaster were carried out at once, which led to unequal conclusions. So in the report made by BP, only 6 main causes of the accident are indicated, and main reason The accident is called the human factor. And a more authoritative report by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulatory and Protection (BOEMRE) and the US Coast Guard lists 35 root causes, 21 of which are entirely BP's fault.
So who is to blame for the DeepWater Horizon explosion and subsequent environmental disaster? The answer is simple - the BP company, which was chasing profits, and in this pursuit neglected elementary safety rules and deep-sea drilling technologies. In particular, well cementing technologies were violated, and specialists who arrived to analyze the cement were simply expelled from the rig. have also been disabled important systems control and security, so no one knew what was really going on under the ocean floor.
The result is an explosion and fire on the platform, a colossal oil spill and the title of one of the largest environmental disasters in the history of civilization.
Chronicle of events
Problems on the platform began almost from the first day of its installation, that is, from the beginning of February 2010. The drilling of the well was carried out in a hurry, and the reason is simple and banal: the DeepWater Horizon platform was leased by BP, and every day it cost half a million (!) Dollars!
However, the real problems began in the early morning of April 20, 2010. The well was drilled, a depth of just over 3,600 meters below the bottom was reached (the depth of the ocean in this place reaches one and a half kilometers), and it remained to complete work on strengthening the well with cement in order to securely “lock” oil and gas.
This process in a simplified form goes like this. Special cement is fed into the well through the casing, then drilling fluid, which displaces the cement with its pressure and forces it to rise up the well. Cement hardens quickly enough and creates a reliable “cork”. And then it is fed into the well sea water, which washes out the drilling fluid and any debris. A large protective device is installed on top of the well - a preventer, which, in the event of an oil and gas leak, simply blocks their access to the top.
Since the morning of April 20, cement has been pumped into the well, and by lunchtime the first tests were already carried out to test the reliability of the cement “plug”. Two specialists flew to the platform to check the quality of cementing. This test was supposed to last about 12 hours, but the management, who could not wait any longer, decided to abandon the standard procedure, and at 14.30 the specialists left the platform with their equipment, and soon drilling fluid began to be fed into the well.
Unexpectedly, at 18.45, the pressure in the drill string increased sharply, reaching 100 atmospheres in a few minutes. This meant that gas was leaking from the well. However, at 19.55, water was pumped, which simply could not be done. In the next hour and a half, the pumping of water was carried out with varying success, as sharp pressure surges forced the work to be interrupted.
Finally, at 21.47 the well does not withstand, gas rushes up the drill string, and in 21.49 there was a huge explosion. After 36 hours, the platform tilted heavily and safely went to the bottom.
The oil slick reached the shores of Louisiana. Source: Greenpeace
Consequences of the explosion
The accident on the oil platform has grown into an environmental disaster, the scale of which is simply amazing.
The main cause of environmental disaster is the oil spill. Oil from the damaged well (as well as associated gases) flowed continuously for 152 days (until September 19, 2010), during which time the ocean waters took more than 5 million barrels of oil. This oil has caused irreparable damage to the ocean and many coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico.
In total, almost 1800 kilometers of coasts were polluted with oil, white sandy beaches turned into black oil fields, and the oil slick on the surface of the ocean was visible even from space. Oil has caused the death of tens of thousands of marine animals and birds.
The fight against the consequences of oil pollution was carried out by tens of thousands of people. From the surface of the ocean, "black gold" was collected by special vessels (skimmers), and the beaches were cleaned only by hand - modern science cannot offer mechanized means to solve this problem, it is so difficult.
The main consequences of the oil spill were eliminated only by November 2011.
The accident had not only ecological, but also colossal (and the most negative) economic consequences. Thus, BP has lost about $22 billion (this includes losses from the loss of the well, and payments to the victims, and the costs of eliminating the consequences of the disaster). But even more significant losses were suffered by the coastal regions of the Gulf of Mexico. This is due to the collapse of the tourism sector (who will go to rest on dirty oil beaches?), with the ban on fishing and other trades, and so on. As a result of the oil spill, tens of thousands of people were left without work, who had nothing to do with this very oil.
However, the catastrophe also had completely unexpected consequences. For example, when studying an oil spill, bacteria unknown to science that feed on oil products were discovered! It is now believed that these microorganisms significantly reduced the effects of the disaster, as they absorbed a huge amount of methane and other gases. It is possible that on the basis of these bacteria, scientists will be able to create microorganisms that in the future will help to quickly and cheaply deal with oil spills.
Workers clean up the aftermath of an oil spill. Port Fourchon, Louisiana. Photo: Greenpeace
Current position
Currently, no work is underway at the site of the sinking of the DeepWater Horizon platform. However, the Macondo field, which was developed by BP using the platform, stores too much oil and gas (about 7 million tons), and therefore new platforms will definitely come here in the future. True, the same people will drill the bottom - employees of BP.
No comments. Photo: Greenpeace
After this Catastrophe on a planetary scale, almost 2 years have passed!
But nothing ended in the Gulf of Mexico.Vice versa! Everything is just beginning there!
Through the efforts of reckless figures from the “world government”, a catastrophe of a magnitude that we cannot even imagine has been caused ...
The consequences of the oil spill are becoming more devastating.
Every day, 800 thousand liters of oil are poured into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This is the worst thing that has happened to mankind in the history of oil production. But the media, of course, as always, are silent about this and lie, and will continue to lie ...
What caused such a terrible accident?
The so-called "accidental explosion" in the Gulf of Mexico is an attack "Transocean", Halliburton, "British Petroleum" and "Goldman Sachs"- the next in a series of monstrous war crimes committed by the bankers of the Anglo-American Rothschild Union.
Think about the “investment bankers” who manage the stock markets, who don’t give a damn how many biological species will die out as a result, including you and me. "If you want to know what God thinks about money, just look at the people he gives it to."
Nowadays, in addition to generating profits, as will be shown below, the Rothschild alliance, which has dominated the world economy for centuries, includes us, the peoples, in its manipulation of the consciousness of the masses, population reduction and environmental destruction. After all, whatever one may say, we, like a sleeping giant, are gradually awakening. And our "slapping" threatens their plan for total global control...
The news and network "programming" is brainwashing propaganda issued by the "partners" of the Rothschild Banking Alliance, including "Goldman Sachs", "JP Morgan" and "UBS", managing "British Petruleum", "Transocean", Halliburton, liquidation capitalists, corexit suppliers and even caravans used by oil spill response groups through co-investors actively represented in the Partnership for New York City (PFNYC), founded by David Rockefeller and established by the Royal Family of England. Together, these "partners" wield the most economic power in world history.
"The truth always becomes known, no matter how cunningly it is hidden. So the" catastrophe "in the Gulf of Mexico received a very real explanation. It became clear why a non-sinking platform drowned, and why everything was poisoned with Corexit ..." Only the blind will not understand, WHAT'S the matter...
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill... Oil Rig Explosion April 2010
For those familiar with English language- a series of videos Deepwater Says Plague ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFjuuWoPvbc&feature=related)? and an interview with former BP lawyer Kindra Arnesen - in 6 parts - "Disappearing America" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyf09Uwx6SM).
Here is a flow chart. What follows from it? And it follows from it that oil can be pulled all over the Atlantic! Pay attention to the red "loop". This is the subtropical circulation of the Gulf Stream. That is, oil that has not floated to the top will be dragged along the arrows. And along the way, she will float, float, float ....
The process is underway.
No one wants to take a dip in the petro-corexite cocktail?
Model of oil slick propagation from the Gulf of Mexico, 4 months after the disaster.
And now, after 5 months, oil is discovered on a beach in the UK ... On January 6, 2011, about 40,000 dead crabs were found on the British coast ... On January 15, the death of seals (adults and cubs), starlings, barn owls, unidentified birds and fish. On January 25, there were reports of hundreds of herring carcasses on two British beaches.
Oil rain with the toxic chemical Corexit-9500.
Now there is a gap in the continuous flow that was before - as a result of the oil spill, the current in the bay has closed into a ring, and heats itself, and less is already getting into the main Gulfstim in the Atlantic warm water than it should. Everything is clearly visible on the maps. ( PDF format): Toxic rainfall across the eastern United States.
July 10: Rain water content toxic substances of the deadly Corexit is equal to 150 lethal doses for the fish! From which it follows that in small reservoirs where it will rain all.
The explosion of the oil platform "Deepwater Horizon"- an accident that occurred on April 20, 2010, 80 kilometers from the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, and eventually developed into a man-made disaster, first local, then regional, with negative consequences for the ecosystem of the region for many decades to come.
One of the largest man-made disasters in world history in terms of negative impact on the ecological situation. It is currently recognized as the largest oil spill into the open ocean in the history of the United States, and probably in the history of the world.
Chronology of events
Explosion and fire
On April 20, 2010 at 22:00 local time, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon platform, causing a massive fire. Shortly before this, a well integrity check was carried out, during which 3 times more drilling fluid was used than expected. As a result of the explosion, seven people were injured, four of them are in critical condition, 11 people are missing. In total, at the time of the emergency, 126 people worked on the drilling platform, which is larger than two football fields, and about 2.6 million liters of diesel fuel were stored. The platform's capacity was 8,000 barrels per day.
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank on April 22 after a 36-hour fire following a massive explosion. After the explosion and flooding, the oil well was damaged and oil from it began to flow into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil spill
The 965-kilometer oil slick approached about 34 kilometers off the coast of Louisiana, endangering beaches and fishing areas that are critical to the economy of the coastal states. On April 26, four BP underwater robots unsuccessfully tried to fix the leak. The work of the flotilla, consisting of 49 tugs, barges, rescue boats and other vessels, was hampered strong winds and rough seas. US emergency services have begun the process of controlled burning of an oil slick off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. The first flame at the oil slick was lit on Wednesday, April 28 at around 4:45 pm local time (01:45 Thursday Moscow time).
It is estimated that up to 5,000 barrels (about 700 tons or 795,000 liters) of oil per day are poured into the water in the Gulf of Mexico. However, experts do not exclude that in the near future this figure may reach 50,000 barrels per day due to the appearance of additional leaks in the well pipe. BP's internal report, released on June 20, says that the amount of leakage could be up to 100,000 barrels (about 14,000 tons or 16,000,000 liters) daily, excluding the volume of oil that can be collected using a protective dome (which is about 15 thousand barrels per day). day). For comparison, the volume of the oil spill that occurred as a result of the accident on the tanker Exxon Valdez, which was previously considered the most environmentally destructive disaster that has ever occurred at sea, amounted to about 260 thousand barrels of oil (about 36,000 tons or 40,900,000 liters ).
As of May 17, the oil slick on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico has spread to the north (US coast) slightly compared to the data of April 28, which is undoubtedly due to measures to prevent oil from spreading and collecting it by forces and means of BP, US emergency services. A special contribution is made by US citizens who volunteer to help rescuers. Nevertheless, the distribution of the spot to the south (to the open sea) is quite pronounced.
On June 4, the US National Center for Atmospheric Research simulated six oil distribution scenarios based on available climate data. According to all six options, in early August this year, the water-oil emulsion will reach the northern coast of Cuba, including the beaches of Varadero. In the second half of August, oil may also be on the northern coast of the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula. The model of American scientists shows that the oil slick will in any case leave the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and begin to move into the North Atlantic towards Europe.
On April 30, oil reached the mouth of the Mississippi River, and on May 6 the coast of Louisiana. On June 5, oil reached the coast of Florida, on June 28, the coast of Mississippi, and on July 6, oil reached the coast of Texas. Thus, all US states with access to the Gulf of Mexico have already suffered from the oil spill.
Well sealing
As of July 16, 2010, the well was sealed and the release of oil into the open ocean was stopped. However, the reliability of the design is in question and BP representatives confirm that it is a temporary solution. There are also no reports of other 2 oil leaks. Thus, for almost three months, the world's oceans were polluted with oil on an industrial scale.
Environmental consequences
In early May 2010, US President Barack Obama called what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico "a potentially unprecedented environmental disaster." Oil slicks were found in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico (one slick 16 km long, 90 meters thick at a depth of up to 1300 meters). Oil will probably flow from the well until August.
Scientists from the US National Center for Atmospheric Research have made computer simulations of 6 possible scenarios for the spread of an oil slick. All 6 options ended with the exit of the slick from the Gulf of Mexico and falling into the so-called Gulf Stream loop. Further, the Gulf Stream carried it to the shores of Europe. The differences were only in the time of the slick exit from the bay, the maximum was 130 days. However, the scientists point out that these simulations are not accurate predictions and simply serve as a warning of danger, as weather conditions and human cleanup could greatly affect the movement of oil pollution. At the time of the simulation, up to 800,000 barrels of oil had entered the water.
Dispersants from the Corexit family are widely used to combat oil slicks on water surfaces.
Elimination of the consequences of the accident
Prior to this, attempts were made to block three breakthroughs, but only one of them, the smallest, was succeeded in blocking. The other two cannot be covered due to their size.
Associated gas flaring at the site of the Deepwater Horizon sinking. "Q4000" (right) and "Discoverer Enterprise". July 8, 2010
Primary operations are performed by the Discoverer Enterprise drillship and the Q4000 multi-purpose semi-submersible platform at the scene. On May 7, the installation of a protective dome began at the site of the emergency oil well.
By May 16, it was possible to arrange the pumping of oil from the well with the help of a pipe one mile long. But this is a temporary measure, the final ways to eliminate the leak have not yet been developed. On May 28, an attempt was made to cement the well; on May 30, reports came that this had not been done.
On June 3, with the help of remotely controlled robots, it was possible to cut off the deformed part of the drill pipe and install a protective dome. However, this did not help to completely stop the oil leak.
On June 9, the administration of President Barack Obama issued an ultimatum to British Petroleum, which was given 72 hours to submit a final plan to eliminate the consequences of the explosion and stop the release of oil.
On the night of July 12, British Petroleum installed a new protective device (plug) weighing 70 tons. The previous plug, which failed to contain the oil, was removed on July 10, with about 120,000 barrels of oil likely to have spilled into the bay.
BP's financial cost to clean up the accident
Every day, British Petroleum's expenses for the liquidation of the consequences of the accident are growing - figures were announced at 450 million, 600 million, 930 million, 990 million and 1.250 billion US dollars. As of June 14, 2010, losses amounted to US$1.6 billion. British Petroleum announced on 12 July 2010 that it had already spent US$3.5 billion in clean-up costs, including US$165 million of that amount to cover payments for individual claims.
