Deepwater Horizon oil spill

This article is about the oil spill. For the oil rig explosion, see Deepwater Horizon explosion. For general information about the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, see Deepwater Horizon.

"2010 oil spill" and "BP oil spill" redirect here. For other oil spills in 2010, see 2010 oil spill (disambiguation). For the 2006 BP oil spill, see Prudhoe Bay oil spill.

Deepwater Horizon oil spill
250px The oil slick as seen from space by NASA's Terra satellite on May 24, 2010.
Location	Gulf of Mexico near Mississippi River Delta
Coordinates	28.73667°N 88.38716°W / 28.73667; -88.38716
Date	April 20, 2010 – present (5360 days)
Cause
Cause	Wellhead blowout
Casualties	13 dead (11 killed on Deepwater Horizon, 2 additional oil related deaths, one of which was suicide) 17 injured
Operator	Transocean under contract for BP
Spill characteristics
Volume	up to 100,000 barrels (4,200,000 US gallons; 16,000 cubic metres) per day
Area	2,500 to 9,100 sq mi (6,500 to 24,000 km2)

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the BP oil disaster or the Macondo blowout) is a massive ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that is the largest offshore spill in U.S. history. Some estimates placed it by late May or early June, 2010, as among the largest oil spills in history with hundreds of millions of gallons spilled to date. The spill stems from a sea floor oil gusher that resulted from the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion. The explosion killed 11 platform workers and injured 17 others.

The gusher is estimated by the quasi-official Flow Rate Technical Group to be flowing at 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day. For comparison, this is an amount equal to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill every one to two weeks. The exact flow rate is uncertain due to the difficulty of installing measurement devices at that depth and is a matter of ongoing debate. The resulting oil slick covers at least 2,500 square miles (6,500 km²), fluctuating from day to day depending on weather conditions. Scientists have also reported immense underwater plumes of oil not visible at the surface.

The spill has extensive environmental impact already apparent on marine and wildlife habitats. The spill has also damaged the Gulf of Mexico fishing and tourism industries. There have been a variety of efforts to stem the flow at the wellhead. Crews have been working to protect hundreds of miles of beaches, wetlands and estuaries along the northern Gulf coast, using skimmer ships, floating containment booms, anchored barriers, and sand-filled barricades along shorelines. The U.S. Government has named BP as the responsible party, and officials have committed to hold the company accountable for all cleanup costs and other damage.

Background

Deepwater Horizon drilling rig

Main article: Deepwater Horizon

Deepwater Horizon prior to explosion

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Location of the Deepwater Horizon on April 20, 2010

The Deepwater Horizon was a 9-year-old semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit, a massive floating, dynamically positioned drilling rig that could operate in waters up to 8,000 feet (2,400 m) deep and drill down to 30,000 feet (9,100 m). It was owned by Transocean, operated under the Marshallese flag of convenience, and was under lease to BP from March 2008 to September 2013. At the time of the explosion, it was drilling an exploratory well at a water depth of approximately 5,000 feet (1,500 m) in the Macondo Prospect, located in the Mississippi Canyon Block 252 of the Gulf of Mexico in the United States exclusive economic zone about 41 miles (66 km) off the Louisiana coast. Production casing was being installed and cemented by Halliburton Energy Services. Once the cementing was complete, the well was due to be tested for integrity and a cement plug set to temporarily abandon the well for later completion as a subsea producer. BP is the operator and principal developer of the Macondo Prospect with a 65% share, while 25% is owned by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, and 10% by MOEX Offshore 2007, a unit of Mitsui. BP purchased the mineral rights for Macondo at the Minerals Management Service's lease sale in March 2008.

Explosion

Main article: Deepwater Horizon explosion

File:Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling unit on fire 2010.jpg

AHTS and PS vessels combat the fire on the Deepwater Horizon while the United States Coast Guard searches for missing crew

During March and early April, several platform workers and supervisors expressed concerns with well control. At approximately 9:45 p.m. CDT on April 20, 2010, methane gas from the well, under high pressure, shot all the way up and out of the drill column, expanded onto the platform, and then ignited and exploded. Fire then engulfed the platform. Most of the workers were evacuated by lifeboats or were airlifted out by helicopter, but eleven workers were never found despite a three-day Coast Guard search operation, and are presumed to have died in the explosion. Efforts by multiple ships to douse the flames were unsuccessful. After burning for approximately 36 hours, the Deepwater Horizon sank on the morning of April 22, 2010. As a result, the drilling riser running from the wellhead on the ocean floor up to the oil rig was destroyed.

On the afternoon of April 22, a large oil slick began to spread at the former rig site. Two remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) unsuccessfully attempted to cap the well. BP announced that it was deploying a ROV to the site to assess whether oil was flowing from the well. On April 23, a ROV reportedly found no oil leaking from the sunken rig and no oil flowing from the well. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry expressed cautious optimism of zero environmental impact, stating that no oil was emanating from either the wellhead or the broken pipes and that oil spilled from the explosion and sinking was being contained. The following day, April 24, Landry announced that a damaged wellhead was indeed leaking oil into the Gulf and described it as "a very serious spill". BP has not given a cause for the explosion. According to the US Congressional investigation the rig's blowout preventer, a fail-safe device fitted at the base of the well, built by Cameron International Corporation, had a hydraulic leak and a failed battery, and therefore failed.

Volume and extent of oil spill

Main article: Timeline of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

The Deepwater Horizon spill has surpassed in volume the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill as the largest ever to originate in U.S.-controlled waters; it is comparable to the 1979 Ixtoc I oil spill in total volume released (Ixtoc discharged 140 to 148 million gallons; as of mid-June 2010, Deepwater Horizon has spilled 73 million to 126 million gallons).

Spill flow rate

In their permit to drill the well, BP estimated the worst case flow at 162,000 barrels (6,800,000 US gallons; 25,800 cubic metres) per day. After the explosion BP and the United States Coast Guard initially estimated that the wellhead was leaking only 1,000 barrels (42,000 US gallons; 160 cubic metres) per day . Outside scientists quickly produced higher estimates, which presaged later increases in official numbers. Official estimates increased from 1,000 to 5,000 barrels (42,000 to 210,000 US gallons; 160 to 790 cubic metres) per day on April 29, to 12,000 to 19,000 barrels (500,000 to 800,000 US gallons; 1,900 to 3,000 cubic metres) per day on May 27, to 25,000 to 30,000 barrels (1,100,000 to 1,300,000 US gallons; 4,000 to 4,800 cubic metres) per day on June 10, and to between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels (1,500,000 and 2,500,000 US gallons; 5,600 and 9,500 cubic metres) on June 15. Internal BP documents, released by Congress, estimate the flow could be as much as 100,000 barrels (4,200,000 US gallons; 16,000 cubic metres) per day if the blowout preventer and wellhead were removed and if restrictions were incorrectly modeled.

Official estimates are being provided by the Flow Rate Technical Group—scientists from USCG, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and outside academics, led by United States Geological Survey (USGS) director Marcia McNutt. The latest estimate is believed to be more accurate because it was no longer necessary to measure multiple leaks, and because detailed pressure measurements and of high-resolution video had become available. According to BP, estimating the oil flow is very difficult as there is no underwater metering at the wellhead and because of the natural gas in the outflow. The company initially refused to allow scientists to perform more accurate, independent measurements, claiming that it was not relevant to the response and that such efforts might distract from efforts to stem the flow. Former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Carol Browner and Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) both accused BP of having a vested financial interest in downplaying the size of the leak.

Spill area

Oil slicks surround the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana, in this aerial photo.

The oil's spread was initially increased by strong southerly winds caused by an impending cold front. By April 25, the oil spill covered 580 square miles (1,500 km²) and was only 31 miles (50 km) from the ecologically sensitive Chandeleur Islands. An April 30 estimate placed the total spread of the oil at 3,850 square miles (10,000 km²). The spill quickly approached the Delta National Wildlife Refuge and Breton National Wildlife Refuge. On May 14, the Automated Data Inquiry for Oil Spills model indicated that about 35 percent of a hypothetical 114,000 barrels (4,800,000 US gal; 18,100 m³) spill of light Louisiana crude oil released in conditions similar to those found in the Gulf would evaporate, that between 50 and 60 percent of the oil would remain in or on the water, and the rest would be dispersed in the ocean. In the same report, Ed Overton says he thinks most of the oil is floating within 1 foot (30 cm) of the surface. The New York Times is tracking the size of the spill over time using data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the US Coast Guard and Skytruth. Oil began washing up on the beaches of Gulf Islands National Seashore on June 1. By June 4, the oil spill had landed on 125 miles (201 km) of Louisiana's coast, had washed up along Mississippi and Alabama barrier islands, and was found for the first time on a Florida barrier island at Pensacola Beach. On June 9, oil sludge began entering the Intracoastal Waterway through Perdido Pass after floating booms across the opening of the pass failed to stop the oil. On June 23, oil appeared on Pensacola Beach and in Gulf Islands National Seashore, and officials warned against swimming for 33 miles (53 km) east of the Alabama line. On June 27, tar balls and small areas of oil reached Gulf Park Estates, the first appearance of oil in Mississippi. Early in July, tar balls reached Grand Isle but 800 volunteers were cleaning them up. On July 3 and 4, tar balls and other isolated oil residue began washing ashore in Texas. Tar balls were collected from beaches in Bolivar and Galveston islands in Galveston County. With the state of Texas, the contamination area now included all Gulf states. On July 5, strings of oil were found in the Rigolets in Louisiana.

Underwater oil plumes

On May 15, researchers from the University of Southern Mississippi, aboard the research vessel RV Pelican, identified oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles (16 km) long, 3 miles (4.8 km) wide and 300 feet (91 m) thick in spots. The shallowest oil plume the group detected was at about 2,300 feet (700 m), while the deepest was near the seafloor at about 4,593 feet (1,400 m). Other researchers from the University of Georgia have found that the oil may occupy multiple layers.^{[citation needed]} By May 27, marine scientists from the University of South Florida had discovered a second oil plume, stretching 22 miles (35 km) from the leaking wellhead toward Mobile Bay, Alabama. The oil has dissolved into the water and is no longer visible. Undersea plumes may be the result of the use of wellhead chemical dispersants. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conducted an independent analysis of the water samples provided from the May 22–28 research mission of the University of South Florida's Weatherbird II vessel. The samples from all undersea plumes were in very low concentrations, less than 0.5 parts per million. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also indicated that one of the plumes was unrelated to the BP oil spill, while the other plume samples were in concentrations too low or too highly fractionated to determine their origin. BP challenged the validity of the multiple reports from scientists that vast plumes of oil from the spill were spreading underwater, stating its sampling showed no evidence that oil was massing and spreading in the gulf water column.

Expansion predictions

On May 19 both NOAA and other scientists monitoring the spill with the European Space Agency Envisat radar satellite stated that oil had reached the Loop Current, which flows clockwise around the Gulf of Mexico towards Florida and becomes the Gulf Stream. They warn that because the Loop Current is a very intense deep ocean current, it will accelerate the mixing of the oil and water which may remove the oil film on the surface and prevent tracking it with satellites, but the pollution is likely to affect the coral reef marine ecosystem. As of June 29 NOAA had determined that the oil slick is no longer a threat to the loop current and stopped tracking offshore oil predictions that include the loop currents region. The omission is noted prominently on the ongoing nearshore surface oil forecasts that are posted daily on the NOAA site.Current Trajectory Maps Changes in weather as well as the Loop Current itself could affect the outcome, but the maximum possible speed is 100 miles (160 km) per day. The main stream would likely stay 50 to 60 miles (80 to 100 km) offshore, but pockets could reach the coast. Whether oil comes ashore farther north depends on local winds, but the Gulf Stream moves away from the coast at the Charleston Bump, southeast of Charleston, South Carolina. Few tar balls would be likely to reach the Carolinas, and dilution would make significant environmental damage very unlikely.

James H. Cowan, a biological oceanographer at Louisiana State University, said a hurricane could push oil inland, possibly affecting rice and sugar cane crops. A hurricane could also delay attempts to close the well and could spread/dilute the oil further or deeper in the ocean. Jeff Masters, founder of Weather Underground, pointed out the possibility of more widespread damage to coastal areas, airborne oil droplets immersed in hurricane winds, and a chance that the oil spill could cause explosive deepening of hurricanes in the Gulf.

Independent monitoring

Wildlife and environmental groups have accused BP of holding back information about the extent and impact of the growing slick, and urged the White House to order a more direct federal government role in the spill response. In prepared testimony for a congressional committee, National Wildlife Federation President Larry Schweiger said BP had failed to disclose results from its tests of chemical dispersants used on the spill, and that BP had tried to withhold video showing the true magnitude of the leak. On May 19 BP established a live feed of the oil spill after hearings in Congress accused the company of withholding data from the ocean floor and blocking efforts by independent scientists to come up with estimates for the amount of crude flowing into the Gulf each day. On May 20 United States Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar indicated that the U.S. government would verify how much oil has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and United States Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano asked for the results of tests looking for traces of oil and dispersant chemicals in the waters of the gulf.

Journalists attempting to document the impact of the oil spill have been repeatedly refused access to public areas. Photojournalists have been prevented from flying over areas of the gulf to document the scope of the disaster. These accusations have been leveled at BP, its contractors, local law enforcement, USCG and other government officials. Scientists have also complained about prevention of access to information controlled by BP and government sources. BP states that its policy is to allow the media and other parties as much access as possible. On June 31, the Coast Guard put new restrictions in place across the Gulf Coast that prevent the public, including news photographers and reporters, from coming within 65 feet of any response teams on the beaches or vessels or booms on the water. In a press briefing, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the new regulation was related to safety issues. CNN journalist Anderson Cooper said that he felt that the new restrictions were put in place to prevent the public from seeing the results of the spill rather than any concern about public safety.

Efforts to stem the flow of oil

See also: Offshore oil spill prevention

Short-term efforts

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Oil containment dome under construction in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, at Wild Well Control on April 26

BP engineers have made repeated attempts to control or stop the oil spill. The first was to use remotely operated underwater vehicles to close the blowout preventer valves on the well head. All six attempts failed to "manually" close the blowout preventer valves. The second technique was to place a 125-tonne (280,000 lb) containment dome (which had worked on leaks in shallower water) over the largest leak and pipe the oil to a storage vessel on the surface. BP deployed the system on May 7–8 but it failed when gas leaking from the pipe combined with cold water to form methane hydrate crystals that blocked the opening at the top of the dome.

On May 11, a smaller containment dome, dubbed a "top hat", was lowered to the seabed but was not placed over the leak. Instead, on May 14 engineers began the process of positioning a 6 inches (15 cm) wide riser insertion tube into the 21 inches (53 cm) wide burst pipe. There is a stopper-like washer around the tube that plugs the end of the riser and diverts the flow into the insertion tube. After three days, BP reported the tube was working. Collection rates varied between 1,000 and 5,000 barrels (42,000 and 210,000 US gallons; 160 and 790 cubic metres) per day, averaging 2,000 bpd as of May 21. Gas was collected at rates between 4 and 17 million cubic feet per day (110×10^³ and 480×10^³ m³/d). The gas was flared and oil stored on the board of drillship Discoverer Enterprise. 924,000 US gallons (22,000 barrels) of oil was collected before removal of the tube.

On May 26, BP tried to close the well using a technique called "top kill". This process involves pumping heavy drilling fluids through two 3-inch (7.6 cm) lines into the blowout preventer. This would restrict the flow of oil, which then could be sealed permanently with cement. On May 29, BP announced that the top kill attempt had also failed.

File:Q4000-Discoverer-Enterprise.jpg

The Q4000 and the Discoverer Enterprise during the failed top kill procedure

On May 29, BP moved to the Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) Cap Containment System. This involved removing the damaged riser from the top of the blowout preventer to leave a cleanly-cut pipe at the top of its LMRP. The cap covers the pipe and connects to a riser. During the cutting of the blowout preventer riser, the diamond blade saw became stuck, forcing BP to use shears, which instead left a ragged edge, that complicates the fit between the cap and the blowout preventer. The cap was attached on June 3, and the system began to capture the leaking oil. By June 6, Allen estimated that the amount of oil captured had increased to 10,000 barrels (420,000 US gallons; 1,600 cubic metres) per day. Tony Hayward stated that the amount captured was "probably the vast majority of the oil." However, the video stream did not show a substantially reduced flow. FRTG member Ira Leifer claimed that more oil was escaping than before the riser was cut.

On June 16, oil and gas started to flow through a second containment system connected directly to the blowout preventer that carried oil and gas through a subsea manifold to the Q4000 service platform operated by Helix Energy Solutions Group. Q4000 has a processing capacity for about 5,000 barrels (210,000 US gallons; 790 cubic metres) of oil per day. Oil and gas is burned on ship in a clean-burning system.

Discoverer Enterprise's 18,000 barrels (760,000 US gallons; 2,900 cubic metres) per day processing capacity is insufficient to handle the leak's full outflow. Transocean's drillship Discoverer Clear Leader and the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel Helix Producer 1 would be added, offloading oil with Knutsen O.A.S. Shipping AS's tankers Evi Knutsen, and Ugland Marine Services Juanita. Each tanker has capacity of 750,000 barrels (32,000,000 US gallons; 119,000 cubic metres). In addition, Frontier Drilling's FPSO Seillean, Sealion Shipping's well testing vessel Toisa Pisces would process oil and be offloaded by shuttle tanker Loch Rannoch.

On June 23, a robot bumped the cap, shutting down oil capture. The cap was successfully reinstalled later that day.

The government's estimates suggested the cap and other equipment were capturing less than half of the oil leaking from the sea floor as of late June.

As of July 3, the converted Taiwanese supertanker A Whale was scheduled to be deployed for tests to ultimately collect up to 300,000 gallons per day of contaminated water, according to the ship's captain. Winds and 10 foot (3 m) waves, however, prevented a test of the containment boom.

On July 5, BP announced that its one-day oil recovery effort accounted for 24,980 barrels of oil, and the flaring off of 57.1 million cubic feet of natural gas. The total oil collection to date for the spill was estimated at 657,300 barrels.

Permanent closure

BP is drilling two relief wells into the original well to enable them to block it. Once the relief wells reach the original borehole, the operator will pump drilling fluid into the original well. Transocean's Development Driller III started drilling a first relief well on May 2 and was at 13,978 feet (4,260 m) out of 18,000 feet (5,500 m) as of June 14. GSF Development Driller II started drilling a second relief on May 16 and was halted at 8,576 feet (2,614 m) out of 18,000 feet (5,500 m) as of June 14 while BP engineers verified the operational status of the second relief well's BOP. The relief wells are expected to begin operating in August at about $100 million per well.

Considerations of using explosives

In mid-April, United States Secretary of Energy Steven Chu assembled a team of nuclear physicists, including hydrogen bomb designer Richard Garwin and Sandia National Laboratories director Tom Hunter. On May 24 BP ruled out conventional explosives, saying that if blasts failed to clog the well, "We would have denied ourselves all other options."

Federal officials also ruled out nuclear devices due to environmental and political risks, and because it would violate the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Allen stated, "since we don't know the condition of that well bore or the casings, I would be cautious about putting any kind of kinetic energy on that well head, because what you may do is create open communication between the reservoir and the sea floor." Allen also said that the result could be oil seeping through cracks and through the seafloor, "and then be uncontrolled until the reservoir pressure equalized with the hydrostatic pressure; I think that's a risk that's too great to take a chance on, myself." Casing integrity concerns also influenced the pressure chosen for the top kill procedure.

Government regulations

The Environmental Protection Agency prohibits the use of skimmers that leave more than 15 parts per million of oil in the water. Many large-scale skimmers are therefore unable to be used in the cleanup because they exceed this limit. During the first two weeks after the spill, 13 foreign governments offered their assistance in cleanup. An "urban myth" grew that the U.S. government declined the offers because of the requirements of the Jones Act.. This proved untrue and many foreign assets deployed to aid in cleanup efforts.

In mid-June, the Coast Guard ordered 16 barges, which had been cleaning up oil, to stop cleanup for more than 24 hours, because it had to confirm that they had fire extinguishers and life vests on board per safety regulations

Protecting the coastline and marine environments

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United States Environmental Services workers prepare oil containment booms for deployment

The three fundamental strategies for addressing spilled oil are to contain it on the surface away from the most sensitive areas, to dilute and disperse it in less sensitive areas, and to remove it from the water. The Deepwater response employed all three strategies, using a variety of techniques.

While most of the oil drilled off Louisiana is a lighter crude, Horizon's oil is a heavier blend which contains asphalt-like substances. According to Ed Overton, who heads a federal chemical hazard assessment team for oil spills, this type of oil emulsifies well, making a "major sticky mess". Once it becomes that kind of mix, it no longer evaporates as quickly as regular oil, does not rinse off as easily, cannot be eaten by microbes as easily, and does not burn as well. "That type of mixture essentially removes all the best oil clean-up weapons", Overton said.

On May 6 BP began documenting the daily response efforts on its web site. While these efforts began using only BP's resources, on April 28 Doug Suttles, chief operating officer, welcomed the US military as it joined the cleanup operation.

The response increased in scale as the spill volume grew. Initially BP employed remotely operated underwater vehicles, 700 workers, four airplanes and 32 vessels. By April 29, 69 vessels including skimmers, tugs, barges and recovery vessels were active in cleanup activities. As of April 30, approximately 2,000 people and 79 vessels were involved. On May 4 the US Coast Guard estimated that 170 vessels, and nearly 7,500 personnel were participating, with an additional 2,000 volunteers assisting. On May 26 all 125 commercial fishing boats helping in the clean up were ordered ashore after some workers began experiencing health problems.

On May 31, BP set up a call line to take cleanup suggestions and by June 27, they had been inundated with more than 110,000 ideas from citizens of many countries. By late of June, BP had reviewed 92,000 and categorized 320 as "promising".

Containment

The response included deploying many miles of containment boom, whose purpose is to either corral the oil, or to block it from a marsh, mangrove, shrimp/crab/oyster ranch or other sensitive area. Booms extend 18–48 inches (0.46–1.2 m) above and below the water surface and are effective only in relatively calm and slow-moving waters.

More than 100,000 feet (30 km) of containment booms were initially deployed to protect the coast and the Mississippi River Delta. By the next day, this nearly doubled to 180,000 feet (55 km), with an additional 300,000 feet (91 km) staged or being deployed. On May 2 high winds and rough waves rendered booms largely ineffective.

On May 21 Plaquemines Parish president Billy Nungesser publicly complained about the federal government's hindrance of local mitigation efforts. State and local officials had proposed building sand berms off the coast to catch the oil before it reached the wetlands, but the emergency permit request had not been answered for over two weeks. The following day Nungesser complained that the plan had been vetoed, while Army Corps of Engineers officials claimed that the request was still under review. Gulf Coast Government officials released water via Mississippi River diversions in effort to create an outflow of water that would keep the oil off the coast. The water from these diversions comes from the entire Mississippi watershed. Even with this approach, on May 23 NOAA predicted a "massive" landfall to the west of the Mississippi River at Port Fourchon.

On May 23 Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell wrote to Lieutenant General Robert L. Van Antwerp of the US Army Corps of Engineers, stating that Louisiana had the right to dredge sand to build barrier islands to keep the oil spill from its wetlands without the Corps' approval, as the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prevents the federal government from denying a state the right to act in an emergency. He also wrote that if the Corps "persists in its illegal and ill-advised efforts" to prevent the state from building the barriers that he would advise Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to build the berms and challenge the Corps in court.

On June 3 BP said barrier projects ordered by Adm. Thad Allen would cost $360 million.

On June 16 Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company under the Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure Group began constructing sand berms off the Louisiana coast.

Dispersal

Spilled oil naturally disperses via storms, currents, and osmosis with the passage of time. If the oil density reaches a low enough level, other natural processes can consume it. Chemical dispersants accelerate the dispersal process, although they may have significant side-effects. Corexit EC9500A and the earlier product Corexit EC9527A, have been the main dispersants being used. These contain propylene glycol, 2-butoxyethanol and dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate. 2-butoxyethanol, identified as a causal agent in the health problems experienced by cleanup workers after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Corexit manufacturer Nalco states, "[COREXIT 9500] is a simple blend of six well-established, safe ingredients that biodegrade, do not bioaccumulate and are commonly found in popular household products....COREXIT products do not contain carcinogens or reproductive toxins. All the ingredients have been extensively studied for many years and have been determined safe and effective by the EPA".

However, Corexit EC9500A and EC9527A are neither the least toxic, nor the most effective, among EPA-approved dispersants, and they are banned from use on oil spills in the United Kingdom. Twelve other products received better toxicity and effectiveness ratings, but BP says it chose to use Corexit because it was available the week of the rig explosion. Critics contend that the major oil companies stockpile Corexit because of their close business relationship with its manufacturer Nalco.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the injection of dispersants directly at the leak site, to break up the oil before it reaches the surface, after three underwater tests.

On May 1 two military C-130 Hercules aircraft were employed to spray oil dispersant.

On May 7 Secretary Alan Levine of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Peggy Hatch, and Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham sent a letter to BP outlining their concerns related to potential dispersant impact on Louisiana's wildlife and fisheries, environment, aquatic life, and public health. Officials requested that BP release information on their dispersant effects.

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A C-130 Hercules drops an oil-dispersing chemical into the Gulf of Mexico

By May 20, BP had applied 600,000 US gallons (2,300,000 l) of Corexit on the surface and 55,000 US gallons (210,000 l) underwater.

Independent scientists suggest that underwater injection of Corexit into the leak might be responsible for the oil plumes discovered below the surface. However, NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco said that there was no information supporting this conclusion, and indicated further testing would be needed to ascertain the cause of the undersea oil clouds.

On May 19 EPA gave BP 24 hours to choose less toxic alternatives to Corexit from the list of dispersants on the National Contingency Plan Product Schedule, and begin to apply the new dispersant(s) within 72 hours of EPA approval, or provide a "detailed description of the alternatives investigated, and the reason those products did not meet the required standards." On May 20 US Polychemical Corporation reportedly received an order from BP for its Dispersit SPC 1000 dispersant. US Polychemical claimed to be able to produce 20,000 US gallons (76,000 l) a day in the first few days, increasing up to 60,000 US gallons (Template:Convert/L) a day thereafter. Also on May 20, BP spokesman Scott Dean said that BP had determined that "none of the alternative products on the ... list meets all three criteria specified in yesterday's directive for availability, toxicity and effectiveness." As of May 23, BP had claimed that providing a "detailed description of the alternatives investigated and the reason they believe those products did not meet the required standards" on a public Web site would compromise its confidential business information. On May 24, EPA administrator Jackson said the 700,000 US gallons (2,600,000 l) of dispersants already used was "approaching a world record" and that "dissatisfied with BP's response" she was ordering EPA to conduct its own evaluation of alternatives, and ordering BP to scale back dispersant use.

Removal

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Clouds of smoke billow up from controlled burns taking place in the Gulf of Mexico

Three basic approaches to removing the oil from the water have been employed which are: burning, filtering off-shore, and collecting for later processing. Issues surrounding removal include air pollution, scale, and legal and regulatory compliance.

On April 28, the US Coast Guard announced plans to corral and burn off up to 1000 barrels of oil each day. It tested how much environmental damage a small, controlled burn of 100 barrels did to surrounding wetlands, but could not proceed with an open ocean burn due to poor conditions.

BP stated that more than 215,000 barrels of oil-water mix had been recovered by May 25. As of June 28, BP says it has successfully removed 890,000 barrels of oily liquid and burned about 314,000 barrels of oil.

BP ordered 32 machines that separate oil and water from Ocean Therapy Solutions. Each machine can extract up to 2000 barrels per day, although the machines work better on newly released oil. BP agreed to use the technology after testing machines for one week.

Consequences

See also: Global industry and economic impact of the Deepwater Horizon disaster

Ecology

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Heavily oiled Brown Pelicans wait to be cleaned of Gulf spill crude

The spill threatens environmental disaster due to factors such as petroleum toxicity and oxygen depletion. Eight U.S. national parks are threatened. More than 400 species live in the Gulf islands and marshlands at risk, including the endangered Kemp's Ridley turtle. In the national refuges most at risk, about 34,000 birds have been counted, including gulls, pelicans, roseate spoonbills, egrets, terns, and blue herons. A comprehensive 2009 inventory of offshore Gulf species counted 15,700. The area of the oil spill includes 8,332, including more than 1,200 fish, 200 birds, 1,400 mollusks, 1,500 crustaceans, 4 sea turtles, and 29 marine mammals. As of July 5, 1,844 dead animals had been collected, including 1,387  birds, 444 sea turtles, and 53 dolphins and other mammals. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, cause of death had not been determined as of late June. Also, dolphins have been seen which are lacking food, and 'acting drunk' apparently due to the spill. A reporter kayaking in the area of Grand Isle reported seeing about 60 dolphins blowing oil through their blow holes as they swam through oil-slick waters.

Duke University marine biologist Larry Crowder said threatened loggerhead turtles on Carolina beaches could swim out into contaminated waters. Ninety percent of North Carolina's commercially valuable sea life spawn off the coast and could be contaminated if oil reaches the area. Douglas Rader, a scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, said prey could be negatively affected as well. Steve Ross of UNC-Wilmington said coral reefs could be smothered.

In early June Harry Roberts, a professor of Coastal Studies at Louisiana State University, stated that 4 million barrels (170,000,000 US gallons; 640,000 cubic metres) of oil would be enough to "wipe out marine life deep at sea near the leak and elsewhere in the Gulf" as well as "along hundreds of miles of coastline." Mak Saito, an Associate Scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts indicated that such an amount of oil "may alter the chemistry of the sea, with unforeseeable results." Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia indicated that the oil could harm fish directly, and microbes used to consume the oil would also reduce oxygen levels in the water. According to Joye, the ecosystem could require years or even decades to recover, as previous spills have done. Oceanographer John Kessler estimates that the crude gushing from the well contains approximately 40% methane, compared to about 5% found in typical oil deposits. Methane could potentially suffocate marine life and create dead zones where oxygen is depleted. Also oceanographer Dr. Ian MacDonald at Florida State University believes that the natural gas dissolving below the surface has the potential to reduce the Gulf oxygen levels and emit benzene and other toxic compounds. Damage to the ocean floor is as yet unknown.

Fisheries and tourism

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As of June 21, 2010, the area closed to fishing encompassed 86,985 square miles (225,290 km²), or about 36% of Gulf of Mexico federal waters.

In BP's Initial Exploration Plan, dated March 10, 2009, they said that "it is unlikely that an accidental spill would occur" and "no adverse activities are anticipated" to fisheries or fish habitat. On April 29, 2010, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency in the state after weather forecasts predicted the oil slick would reach the Louisiana coast. An emergency shrimping season was opened on April 29 so that a catch could be brought in before the oil advanced too far. By April 30 the Coast Guard received reports that oil had begun washing up to wildlife refuges and seafood grounds on the Louisiana Gulf Coast. On May 22 The Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board stated said 60 to 70 percent of oyster and blue crab harvesting areas and 70 to 80 percent of fin-fisheries remained open. The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals closed an additional ten oyster beds on May 23, just south of Lafayette, Louisiana, citing confirmed reports of oil along the state's western coast.

On May 2 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration closed commercial and recreational fishing in affected federal waters between the mouth of the Mississippi River and Pensacola Bay. The closure initially incorporated 6,814 square miles (17,650 km²). By June 21 NOAA had increased the area under closure over a dozen times, encompassing by that date 86,985 square miles (225,290 km²), or approximately 36% of Federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, and extending along the coast from Atchafalaya Bay, Louisiana to Panama City, Florida. On May 24 the federal government declared a fisheries disaster for the states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Initial cost estimates to the fishing industry were $2.5 billion.

On June 23, NOAA ended its fishing ban in 8,000 square miles (21,000 km²) square miles, leaving 78,597 square miles (203,570 km²) with no fishing allowed.

Although many people cancelled their vacations at first, hotels close to the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama reported dramatic increases in business from 2009 during the first half of May 2010. On May 25 BP gave Florida $25 million to promote its beaches, which the oil had not reached, and the company planned $15 million each for Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. The Bay Area Tourist Development Council bought digital billboards showing recent photos from the beaches as far north as Nashville, Tennessee and Atlanta. Along with these and other assurances that the beaches are so far unaffected, hotels have cut rates and offered deals such as free golf. Also, cancellation policies have changed, and refunds have been promised to those where oil arrives. However, 2009 was a slow year, and those working to deal with the spill have rented rooms in the area. Revenues remain below 2009 levels due to the special deals. By June many people were cancelling vacations while they could do so, fearing the arrival of oil on the beaches.

By the end of June tourism was off in Mississippi even though beaches were open with no oil until June 27.

University of Central Florida economist Abraham Pizam said the oil slick may become "the worst disaster in the history of Florida tourism." Initial cost estimates were that the impact on tourism along Florida's Paradise Coast could be $3 billion.

Other economic consequences

On July 5 BP reported that its own expenditures on the oil spill had reached $3.12 billion, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs. The United States Oil Pollution Act of 1990 limits BP's liability for non-cleanup costs to $75 million unless gross negligence is proven. BP has said it would pay for all cleanup and remediation regardless of the statutory liability cap. Nevertheless, some Democratic lawmakers are seeking to pass legislation that would increase the liability limit to $10 billion. Analysts for Swiss Re have estimated that the total insured losses from the accident could reach $3.5 billion. According to UBS, final losses could be $12 billion. According to Willis Group Holdings, total losses could amount to $30 billion, of which estimated total claims to the market from the disaster, including control of well, re-drilling, third-party liability and seepage and pollution costs, could exceed $1.2 billion. On June 25 BP's market value reached a 52-week low. The company's total value lost since April 20 was $105 billion. Investors saw their holdings in BP shrink to $27.02, a nearly 54 percent loss of value in 2010. BP has announced that it is setting up a new unit to oversee management of the oil spill and its aftermath, which will be headed by former TNK-BP chief executive Robert Dudley.

Local officials in Louisiana have expressed concern that the offshore drilling moratorium imposed in response to the spill will further harm the economies of coastal communities. The oil industry employs about 58,000 Louisiana residents and has created another 260,000 oil-related jobs, accounting for about 17 percent of all Louisiana jobs. BP has agreed to allocate $100 million for payments to offshore oil workers who are unemployed due to the six-month moratorium on drilling in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico.

The real estate prices and a number of transactions in the Gulf of Mexico area have decreased significantly since beginning of the oil spill. As a result, area officials want the state legislature to allow property tax to be paid based on current market value, which according to State Rep. Dave Murzin could mean millions of dollars in losses for each county affected.

Litigation

Main article: Deepwater Horizon litigation

See also: Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar

By May 26 over 130 lawsuits relating to the spill had been filed against one or more of BP, Transocean, Cameron International Corporation, and Halliburton Energy Services, although it is considered likely by observers that these will be combined into one court as a multidistrict litigation. By June 17 over 220 lawsuits were filed against BP alone. Because the spill has been largely lingering offshore, the plaintiffs who can claim damages so far are mostly out-of-work fishermen and tourist resorts that are receiving cancellations. The oil company says 23,000 individual claims have already been filed, of which 9,000 have so far been settled. BP and Transocean want the cases to be heard in Houston, seen as friendly to the oil business. Plaintiffs have variously requested the case be heard in Louisiana, Mississippi or Florida. Five New Orleans judges have recused themselves from hearing oil spill cases because of stock ownership in companies involved or other conflicts of interest. BP has retained law firm Kirkland & Ellis to defend most of the lawsuits arising from the oil spill.

Health consequences

As of May 29, ten oil spill clean-up workers had been admitted to West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, Louisiana. All but two had been hospitalized suffering from symptoms emergency room doctors diagnosed as dehydration. At a press briefing about the May 26 medical evacuation of seven crewmembers from Vessels of Opportunity working in the Breton Sound area, Coast Guard Captain Meredith Austin, Unified Command Deputy Incident Commander in Houma, LA, said that air monitoring done in advance of beginning work showed no volatile organic compounds above limits of concern. No respiratory protection was issued, said Austin “because air ratings were taken and there were no values found to be at an unsafe level, prior to us sending them in there.” Crude oil contains a mixture of volatile hydrocarbon compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that typically include benzene, toluene, and xylene, which are known carcinogens. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) have caused tumors in laboratory animals when they breathed these substances. Symptoms of exposure to these petroleum compounds include dizziness, headaches, nausea, and rapid heart beat. Kerosene (a component of the dispersants being used in the Gulf) exposure causes similar symptoms.

On June 15 Marylee Orr, Executive Director for Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN), said on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann that people along the Gulf Coast are getting very sick, with symptoms of dizziness, vomiting, nausea, headaches, and chest pains, not only from the first responders to the crisis, but residents living along the coast as well. LEAN's director reported that BP has threatened to fire their workers if they use respirators distributed by LEAN, though health and safety officials have not required their use, as they may exacerbate risks of heat exhaustion. By June 21, 143 oil spill exposure-related cases had been reported to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) since the crisis began; 108 of those cases involved workers in the oil spill clean-up efforts, while thirty-five were reported by the general public.

The Institute of Medicine of the U. S. National Academies held a workshop June 22 and 23 to assess known health effects of this and previous oil spills and to coordinate epidemiological monitoring and ongoing medical research. Louisiana state health officer Jimmy Guidry stated that need as: “This is more than a spill. This is ongoing leakage of a chemical, and adding chemicals to stop the chemicals. We're feeling like we're in a research lab." On the second day of the meeting the suicide of William Allen Kruse, a charter boat captain working as a BP clean-up worker, intensified previous expert commentary on the current and likely long-term mental health effects of the ongoing crisis. David Abramson, director of research for Columbia's National Center for Disaster Preparedness, noted the increased risk of mental disorders and stress-related health problems.

U.S. and Canadian offshore drilling policy

Main articles: United States offshore drilling debate and 2010 U.S. Deepwater Drilling Moratorium

See also: Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar

After the Deepwater Horizon explosion a six-month offshore drilling (below 500 feet (150 m) of water) moratorium was enforced by the United States Department of the Interior. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar ordered immediate inspections of all deep-water operations in the Gulf of Mexico. An Outer Continental Shelf safety review board within the Department of the Interior is to provide recommendations for conducting drilling activities in the Gulf. The moratorium suspended work on 33 rigs. It was challenged by several drilling and oil services companies. On June 22, a United States federal judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana Martin Leach-Cross Feldman when ruling in the case Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar, lifted the moratorium finding it too broad, arbitrary and not adequately justified. The Department of Justice appealed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which granted the request for an expedited hearing. A three judge panel is scheduled to hear oral arguments on July 8.

On June 30, Salazar said that "he is working very hard to finalize a new offshore drilling moratorium". Michael Bromwich, the head of the newly created Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, said that a record of "bad performance, deadly performance" by an oil company should be considered "a relevant factor" for the government when it decides if that company should be awarded future drilling leases. Representative George Miller plans to introduce to the energy reform bill under consideration in the United States House of Representatives that a company's safety record should factor into leasing decisions. By this amendment he wants to ban BP from leasing any additional offshore acreage for seven years because of "extensive record of serious worker safety and environmental violations".

On April 28 the National Energy Board of Canada, which regulates offshore drilling in the Canadian Arctic and along the British Columbia Coast, issued a letter to oil companies asking them to explain their argument against safety rules which require same-season relief wells. Five days later, the Canadian Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice said the government would not approve a decision to relax safety or environment regulations for large energy projects. On May 3 California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger withdrew his support for a proposed plan to allow expanded offshore drilling projects in California. On July 8 Florida Governor Charlie Crist called for a special session of the state legislature to draft an amendment to the state constition banning offshore drilling in state waters.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico accounts for 23.5% of U.S. oil production.

Spill response fund

BP initially promised to compensate all those affected. CEO Tony Hayward, BP stated, "We are taking full responsibility for the spill and we will clean it up and where people can present legitimate claims for damages we will honor them. We are going to be very, very aggressive in all of that."

On June 16, after meeting with President Obama, BP executives agreed to create a $20 billion spill response fund. BP has said it will pay $3 billion in third quarter of 2010 and $2 billion in fourth quarter into the fund followed by a payment of $1.25 billion per quarter until it reaches $20 billion. In the interim, BP posts its US assets worth $20 billion as bond. The amount of this fund is not a cap on BP's liabilities. For the fund's payments, BP will cut its capital spending budget, sell $10 billion in assets, and drop its dividend. The fund will be administered by Kenneth Feinberg. One aim of the fund will be to minimize lawsuits against the company. According to BP's officials the fund can be used for natural resource damages, state and local response costs and individual compensation but cannot be used for fines or penalties.

As of July 4, BP announced it had spent $3 billion, but this is unrelated to the fund.

Reactions

U.S. government

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President Obama speaking in the Oval Office about the spill

On April 30 President Barack Obama ordered the federal government to hold issuing new offshore drilling leases until a thorough review determines whether more safety systems are needed and authorized teams to investigate 29 oil rigs in the Gulf in an effort to determine the cause of the disaster. That same day he announced that he had dispatched the Secretaries of the Department of Interior and Homeland Security, as well as the EPA Administrator and NOAA to the Gulf Coast to assess the disaster.

On May 11 Department of the Interior released a press release, announcing that the inspection of deepwater drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico found no major violations. On May 30, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued a moratorium on all deepwater offshore drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf for a period of six months (see 2010 U.S. Deepwater Drilling Moratorium). Soon after, Hornbeck Offshore Services, a company with financial interests in deepwater drilling, filed suit (Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar) in U.S. District Court seeking an injunction to bar enforcement. Judge Martin Feldman of the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana issued a decision for Hornbeck on Tuesday, June 22, 2010, granting a preliminary injunction, barring enforcement of the order. The White House has indicated that they will immediately appeal the injunction. Salazar has indicated that the Department of the Interior will also "issue a new order in the coming days that eliminates any doubt that a moratorium is needed, appropriate, and within our authorities."

On June 9 the FAA issued a NOTAM (Notice to airmen) no-fly zone over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the affected area, effective until further notice. According to the New York Times, the Department of Homeland Security is denying media access to the area.

The Obama administration sent a $69 million bill to BP for the U.S. government's clean up effort. The bill was also sent to Transocean, Anadarko, Moex Offshore and QBE Underwriting. On June 15 President Obama made his first speech from the Oval Office, addressing the BP oil spill crisis, saying, "This oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced... Make no mistake: we will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long as it takes. We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. And we will do whatever's necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy."

On July 4, 2010, the federal government announced that it will be taking control of the Deepwater Horizon Response website from joint BP/government agency control and would take charge of information posted. BP did not comment on the change. The new site, RestoreTheGulf.com, was activated on July 7 and will gradually incorporate content previously on deepwaterhorizonresponse.com, to be phased out over several weeks.

International governments

Three days after the oil spill began, the Netherlands offered to donate the use of ships equipped to handle very large scale spills.

The Netherlands also offered to prepare a contingency plan to protect Louisiana marshlands with sand barriers and a Dutch research institute developed a strategy to begin building 60-mile-long (100 km) dikes within three weeks. According to Geert Visser, Dutch Consul-General, the U.S. government responded to the Dutch offer with "Thanks for your help, but at the moment we can manage ourselves", despite BP's desire to bring in the Dutch equipment. US regulations require that oil-contaminated water must be stored on board in US waters. The Dutch vessels continuously extract the majority of the oil, but the water that returns to the ocean does not comply with the U.S. standard. Dutch officials have criticized the requirement, as it requires many additional trips to on-shore storage facilities. Spill Response Group head Wierd Koops said, "you have to get as much oil as possible into the storage tanks and as little water as possible. So we pump the water, which contains drops of oil, back overboard" Admiral Allen explained on June 11, "We have skimmed, to date, about 18 million gallons of oily water--the oil has to be decanted from that [and] our yield is usually somewhere around 10% or 15% on that". The US later relaxed its requirements and took the Dutch up on part of their offer, airlifting Dutch equipment to the Gulf and retrofitting it to U.S. vessels, where as of June 10, it had not yet entered service. To avoid using Dutch ships and workers, the U.S. government asked them to train American workers to build the sand berms. According to Floris Van Hovell, a Dutch spokesman, Dutch dredging ships could complete the Louisiana berms twice as fast as the U.S. companies.

As of May 6, the United Nations and fourteen countries had offered assistance. The U.S. government declined the offers, with a State Department email to reporters stating "there is no need right now that the U.S. cannot meet." The countries offering help were Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Iran, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

On June 14 Chris Huhne, the U.K. Secretary of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change, made a formal statement to the House of Commons, expressing sympathy to those affected, that the environmental consequences must take priority and that the U.K. Government would remain focused on practical measures to achieve this, including offering dispersants. On June 21 Iran's Revolutionary Guards offered assistance to contain the oil spill.

That same day, U.S. spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. had received 21 aid offers from 17 countries and four international groups. "We are maintaining contact with these countries, we are grateful for the offers, and we will take them up on these offers." On June 19, the Coast Guard actively requested skimming boats and equipment from the Netherlands, Norway, France, and Spain. By June 25, the U.S. State Department listed 70 assistance offers from 23 countries, and indicated that 8 had been accepted. On June 29 the State Department accepted 22 offers of assistance from 12 countries and international bodies, including two high speed skimmers and fire containment boom from Japan.

A month after the French foreign minister volunteered a fleet of private oil skimming boats, the owner met with BP and Coast Guard officials to present the idea. Weeks later, in late June, a private contractor in Florida purchased 9 of them.

The U.S. Jones Act prohibits the use of foreign ships and foreign crews in port-to-port shipping and within the three-mile limit. Initially, foreign-flagged boats stayed outside the limit and did not transport oil, exempting them from the Act. Allen states, "While we have not seen any need to waive the Jones Act as part of this historic response, we continue to prepare for all possible scenarios....Should any waivers be needed, we are prepared to process them as quickly as possible to allow vital spill response activities being undertaken by foreign-flagged vessels to continue without delay." According to the spill response center, six vessels have now applied for waivers. As of late June, none had been granted.

BP public relations

Initially BP downplayed the incident; CEO Tony Hayward called the amount of oil and dispersant "relatively tiny" in comparison with the "very big ocean." Hayward also initially stated that the environmental impact of the Gulf spill would likely be "very very modest." Later, he said that the spill was a disruption to Gulf Coast residents and himself adding, "You know, I'd like my life back." He later apologized for his statements. BP's chief operating officer Doug Suttles contradicted the underwater plume discussion noting, "It may be down to how you define what a plume is here… The oil that has been found is in very minute quantities." On June 16 BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, speaking to reporters after meeting with President Obama at the White House said, "I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies who don't care. But that is not the case in BP. We care about the small people."

File:Oil spill Google search 2010-00-06.png

Google search result for "oil spill" showing sponsored link by BP, followed by link to news for oil spill

On May 30 BP hired Anne Kolton, former head of public affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy and former spokesperson for Dick Cheney, as head of U.S. media relations. BP established a new division, headed by board member and managing director Bob Dudley to handle the company's response. On June 4 BP began running TV ads featuring CEO Tony Hayward as he apologized for the disaster, adding "We will make this right." The company also ran print ads in newspapers including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The Washington Post. According to Jon Bond, co-founder of the Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal agency, the cost for the BP public relations campaign was about $50 million. BP spokesperson Toby Odone told ABC News that BP had successfully bid for several search terms related to the oil spill on Google and other search engines so that the first sponsored search result links directly to the company's website. This is "a great PR strategy" commented Kevin Ryan, CEO of an internet communications firm, and one not used before by other firms facing similar public relations "nightmares," adding that research suggests most people cannot distinguish between sponsored links and actual news sites.

Public reaction

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Public protest in New Orleans following the oil spill

There has been a great deal of criticism of BP both in the US and worldwide for its role in the oil spill. By June 22, Facebook page "Boycott BP," started by Lee Perkins, had over 688,500 "likes" from Facebook users, and generated media stories. By July 3, the online petition "Boycott BP" posted by consumer advocacy group Public Citizen had over 22,000 pledges from people who pledge not to buy any BP products for three months. Across the US, thousands of people participated in dozens of protests at BP gas stations and other locations. Alternative metal band Korn is boycotting the use of BP fuel in their tour bus for all upcoming tour dates, and also encouraged the other bands to do the same. Korn eventually got the entire 2010 Mayhem Festival to join the boycott, and several other recording artists including Lady Gaga, Creed, Disturbed and Rise Against among others. In late May, Greenpeace activists in London scaled BP's company headquarters in St. James's Square and unfurled mock BP logo banners imprinted with oil stains reading "british polluters". According to the Associated Press, as of June 29 the protests caused sales declines at some stations between 10% to 40%, but BP owns few of the 11,000 U.S. stations selling its fuel under the BP, Amoco and ARCO banners. Most are owned locally, under contract to buy BP fuel.

Ted Turner commented on CNN about the spill along with the West Virginia Upper Big Branch Mine disaster on 5 April, stating "I'm just wondering if God is telling us He doesn't want to drill offshore. And right before that, we had that coal mine disaster in West Virginia where we lost 29 miners ... Maybe the Lord's tired of having the mountains of West Virginia, the tops knocked off of them so they may get more coal. I think maybe we ought to just leave the coal in the ground and go with solar and wind power and geothermals..."

Public opinion

Regarding the handling of the situation, according to a USA Today-Gallup poll conducted in late May, 53 percent of Americans rated President Obama's performance as poor or very poor, while 43 percent rated it as good or very good. Approximately 60 percent said the federal government had done a poor or very poor job, while 35 percent rated the government's performance as good or very good. A CBS News poll also conducted in late May likewise found a negative evaluation of Obama, with 45 percent disapproving of his performance, 35 percent approving, and 20 percent undecided. 73 percent in the Gallup poll describing BP's response as poor or very poor, while 24 percent said it had been good or very good. In the CBS survey, 70 percent disapproved of BP's response, with only 18 percent approving and 12 percent undecided. An opinion poll conducted by Washington Post-ABC News in early June found that nearly three-fourths of Americans considered the spill a major environmental disaster. Of those polled, 81 percent viewed the BP response negatively and 69 percent viewed the federal government response negatively. Sixty-four percent of those polled expressed support for criminal prosecution of BP.

Charity

More than $4 million has been donated to offset economic and environmental damage. Almost half of that amount has been from oil companies. BP America made a $1 million donation to Second Harvest Food as requests for food assistance have increased as a result of the spill. On June 22, BP said money received from selling oil from Deepwater Horizon would go to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, to be used to help wildlife along the Gulf Coast. BP started the fund with $5 million.

Investigations

On April 22 the United States Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service launched an investigation of the possible causes of the explosion. On May 11 the Obama administration requested the National Academy of Engineering conduct an independent technical investigation to determine the root causes of the disaster so that corrective steps could be taken to address the mechanical failures underlying the accident. On May 22 President Obama announced that he had issued Executive Order 13543 establishing the bipartisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, with former Florida Governor and Senator Bob Graham and former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly serving as co-chairs. The purpose of the commission is to "consider the root causes of the disaster and offer options on safety and environmental precautions." On June 1 U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he has opened a criminal investigation of the BP oil spill. "There are a wide range of possible violations, and we will closely examine the actions of those involved in this spill," Holder said.

On April 30, the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce asked Halliburton to brief it as well as provide any documents it might have related to its work on the Macondo well. Attention has focused on the cementing procedure and the blowout preventer, which failed to fully engage. A number of significant problems have been identified with the blowout preventer: There was a leak in the hydraulic system that provides power to the shear rams. The underwater control panel had been disconnected from the bore ram, and instead connected to a test hydraulic ram. The blowout preventer schematic drawings, provided by Transocean to BP, do not correspond to the structure that is on the ocean bottom. The shear rams are not designed to function on the joints where the drill pipes are screwed together or on tools that are passed through the blowout preventer during well construction. The explosion may have severed the communication line between the rig and the sub-surface blowout preventer control unit such that the blowout preventer would have never received the instruction to engage. Before the backup dead man's switch could engage, communications, power and hydraulic lines must all be severed, but it is possible hydraulic lines were intact after the explosion. Of the two control pods for the deadman switch, the one that has been inspected so far had a dead battery. Employee Tyrone Benton told the BBC on June 21 that a leak was spotted on a crucial piece of equipment in the oil rig's blowout preventer weeks before the accident, and that Transocean and BP were emailed about it.

According to Doug Brown's, the chief mechanic on the Deepwater Horizon, testimony on May 26 at the joint U.S. Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service hearing, a BP representative overruled Transocean employees and insisted on displacing protective drilling mud with seawater just hours before the explosion. One of the BP representatives on the board responsible for making the final decision, Robert Kaluza, refused to testify on the Fifth Amendment grounds that he might incriminate himself; Donald Vidrine, another BP representative, cited medical reasons for his inability to testify, as did James Mansfield, Transocean's assistant marine engineer on board.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is investigating the incident. In a statement made in June they noted that in a number of cases leading up to the explosion, BP appears to have chosen riskier procedures to save time or money, sometimes against the advice of its staff or contractors.

In a June 18 statement, Jim Hackett, the CEO of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, said research "indicates BP operated unsafely and failed to monitor and react to several critical warning signs during the drilling. ... BP's behavior and actions likely represent gross negligence or willful misconduct." BP responded by strongly disagreeing with the Anadarko statement and said that, despite being contractually liable for sharing clean-up costs, Anadarko is "refusing to accept responsibility for oil spill removal costs and damages". BP has sent Anadarko a bill for $272.2 million; Anadarko is "assessing our contractual remedies".

See also

• Timeline of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
• List of industrial disasters
• List of oil spills
• Largest oil spills
• Exxon Valdez oil spill (1989)
• Ixtoc I oil spill (1979)
• Piper Alpha (1988)
• Offshore oil and gas in the US Gulf of Mexico
• Oil Pollution Act of 1990
• Unified Command (Deepwater Horizon oil spill)
• National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
• Firecane

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[[Commons: Category:Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion

| Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[[Commons: Category:Deepwater Horizon oil spill

| Deepwater Horizon oil spill

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Wikinews

 Wikinews has related news:

• Oil rig in Gulf of Mexico sinks after explosion; eleven missing
• Gulf of Mexico oil spill expanding; submarines to try to stop leak
• Oil spill in Gulf of Mexico reported to have reached coast; offshore drilling ban announced by Obama administration
• Oil company BP to pay for Gulf of Mexico spill

• RestoreTheGulf.gov official U.S. Government Web site, taking over content and functions from Deepwater Horizon Response site
• Deepwater Horizon Response from the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command (U.S. Government/BP/Transocean)
• Deepwater BP Oil Spill at Whitehouse.gov
• Deepwater Horizon Incident, Gulf of Mexico from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• Deepwater Horizon Joint Investigation by the U.S. Coast Guard and Mineral Management Service
• Gulf of Mexico response from BP, including live video feed of riser
• Transocean Response Site - Transocean
• Smithsonian's Ocean Portal
• Compared Magnitudes of major Oil Spills - Exxon Valdez, Deepwater Horizon, Niger Delta from lelaissezfaire

Lead state agency websites

• Alabama Governor's Office
• Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
• Emergency.Louisiana.gov
• Mississippi DEQ
• Texas Oil Spill Prevention and Response Program

Directories

• Deepwater Horizon oil spill at the Open Directory Project
• Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico online resources from The Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant Programs
• Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill links to government documents and resources from the University of South Alabama
• Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill at Google Crisis Response

News media

• Full coverage on BBC News
• Full coverage on C-SPAN video library
• Full coverage on CNN
• Full coverage on The Guardian
• Full coverage from the Houston Chronicle
• Full coverage from the Los Angeles Times Greenspace
• Full coverage from The Miami Herald
• Full coverage on The New York Times
• Full coverage from The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
• Full coverage from the Press-Register (Mobile, Alabama)
• Full coverage from The Wall Street Journal
• Full coverage from GRITtv

Interactive Maps

• Mapping the Response to BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico (GeoPlatform.gov)
• Gulf Oil Spill Tracker interactive map and form for citizen reporting (SkyTruth.org)

Images

• Live Video live feeds from remotely operated vehicles (Sitelab Internet Engineering)
• Gulf Oil Spill 2010 Projected Trajectory from Louisiana Earth
• Rig fire at Deepwater Horizon 4/21/10 video at CNN iReport
• GOES-13 satellite images on the CIMSS Satellite Blog