Timeline of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (July 2010)

Following is a timeline of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill for July 2010 .

Events prior to June

Main article: Timeline of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

June 2010

Main article: Timeline of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (June 2010)

July 1–5

File:Noaa-projection-deepwater.png

NOAA projections issued July 2 on probability of oil coming ashore

• July 1

• Total estimated discharge since the start reaches 140.6 million gallons – topping 140-million-gallon Ixtoc I oil spill that was the previous biggest in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Senate Republicans agree to lift secret hold that Jim DeMint placed to block legislation giving subpoena powers to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling . Wesley Denton, DeMint’s spokesman, says, “"Senator DeMint does not and will not have an objection to this legislation…He simply objected on behalf of other senators who had not been given time to review the bill. Now that they've had time to review it, it seems no one has an objection."
• Kenneth Feinberg tells the House Small Business Committee that tourist-related businesses may not be able to collect from the fund set aside to pay damages. "If there's no physical damage to the beaches and it's a public perception, I venture to say that it is not compensable,” he testifies.
• The supertanker A Whale, belonging to TMT Shipping of Taiwan arrives at Boothville, Louisiana. It is billed at the “world’s largest skimmer.” It reports it can skim 21 million gallons a day – 250 times the capacity of the fishing boats being used. It is awaiting approval to be used.
• Hurricane Alex is downgraded to tropical storm and comes ashore in Mexico. 510 skimmers have been sent into port.
• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and Occupational Safety and Health Administration establish recommendations for using respirators. They are particularly recommended for those where oil is being burned and voluntarily recommended elsewhere.
• BP issues cards to employees and contractors telling them they are free to talk to the press.

• July 2

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issues models of the probability of oil coming a shore based on historical winds and currents. The model show that Texas has a 1% chance of getting hit but that Florida Keys, Miami, Florida, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida areas have a greater probability (61%–80%) due to the potential influence of the Loop Current.
• Allen says that number of skimmers in the Gulf should increase from 550 currently to 750 by mid-July and more by August.
• Allen says that Hurricane Alex delayed the deployment of the Helix Producer and they are now on track for it come online on July 7 allowing collection of 50 to 53,000 barrels a a day with the existing cap. A second vertical riser is being installed and it is hoped will go into operation by July 15. For everything to function a new cap will have to be installed. Allen reports an autonomous sub-sea dispersant delivery system has been proposed by BP for delivering disperants in case a hurricane forces the recovery operations to be suspended. The proposal is pending authorization. Allen says that options in case the relief wells do not work are establishing pipelines to production facilities two, three, four, five miles away ad then pumping it back down into the reservoir. Another option is to simply continue pump oil out of the well if the cap is successful.
• Paul Zukunft says impact of Alex continued seven foot waves at the well site and 50 percent of the overflights were canceled. The A Whale begins trials.
• FEMA trailers used in Hurricane Katrina are reported to be being used by BP to house employees. The Katrina trailers had issues with contaminated with formaldehyde and had rules about their reuse. They do not have the serial numbers. Zukunft says they are not the Katrina trailers.
• New York Times reports on Camp Hope in Arabi, Louisiana which was being used for rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina. BP has spent $600,000 on renovations to house 300 oil spill personnel.

• July 3

• Unified Command issues press release which says, "The risk of weathered oil and tar balls from the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill coming to the Florida Peninsula and the Florida Keys remains low under current ocean and wind conditions. NOAA’s long-term projection model released yesterday focused on the possible long-term shoreline threats and not on current wind and ocean conditions in the Gulf of Mexico...The model considers conditions that are typical for this time of year to evaluate long-term likelihood of threats to different shorelines. Current conditions, especially given the absence of a significant amount of Deepwater Horizon/BP oil from the loop current, indicate that immediate threats to the Florida Keys, Miami and Ft. Lauderdale areas remain low."

• July 4

• Don Ballard, the operations director for the Grand Isle branch of the Unified Command, says in a press release, "There is a long-term treatment plan for Grand Isle which includes the collection and washing of oiled sand including buried oil...Part of this plan includes collecting and storing oiled sand in piles for later cleaning. At no time has clean sand been used by clean-up crews to cover or bury oil or oiled sand."
• The facility to treat oily birds at Fort Jackson, Louisiana is moved to Hammond, Louisiana to avoid hurricane complications.
• The Unified Command issues a press release noting that its exclusion zone around booms is to protect the booms from damage and not to exclude press. "These 20-meter zones are only slightly longer than the distance from a baseball pitcher's mound to home plate. This distance is insignificant when gathering images. In fact, these zones, which do not target the press, can and have been opened for reporters as required. It is unfortunate that the safety zones are needed at all, but the responsibility of officials is to wage the most effective and safest response possible while best supporting factual and open reporting. That will continue until BP caps its leaking well and the cleanup is complete."
• Unified Command releases story 10-year-old Ian Masson who raised $445 in a "Pennies for Pelicans" campaign in Michigan.

• July 5

• BP says the spills outright cost is $3.12 billion and that so far it has received 95,000 claims and made around 47,000 payments. It says it has collected or flared 585,400 barrels, skimmed 673,497 barrels and had control burns of 238,000 barrels.
• Weather Service predicts wave heights of 3 to 6 feet through July 8. Helix Producer cannot connect with heights greater than 3 feet.
• Unified Command reports 1,000 Heavy Oil Recovery Devices (HORD) being manufactured in Pensacola, Florida and Bayou La Batre, Alabama are expected to come online within the next few weeks. The device invented by Gerry Matherne to deal with the unique situaton in the Gulf. Previous skimmers focused on surface oil whereas the current oil is degraded to peanut butter consistency and 12 to 18 inches below the surface. The device is described as "A mesh bag held open by a 3-foot by 3-foot aluminum frame is dragged through the water by shrimp boats put into service as skimmers. The cage-like device scoops up surface oil and sheen, as well as the thick oil lurking beneath the surface of the water."
• Small amount of tarballs wash ashore on the Bolivar Peninsula, northeast of Galveston, Texas and on Galveston Island itself. This is the first report of tarballs in Texas.
• Oil is reported at Rigolets raising fears it will hit Lake Pontchartrain.
• Shokri Ghanem, chairman of National Oil Corporation urges the Libyan Investment Authority to increase its share of BP because "BP shares are good value for bargain hunters."
• Tests on the A Whale prove inconclusive because of high waves.
• National Hurricane Center says there is a 60 percent chance that a disorganized, low-pressure system could develop into a tropical storm before moving inland July 5 or 6.
• U.S. Navy Blimp American Blimp MZ-3 deployed to Jack Edwards National Airport in Gulf Shores, Alabama. It is to be moored 3 miles southeast of the Mobile Bay shoreline.
• Barclays PLC, BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup Inc., Banco Santander SA, HSBC Holdings PLC, Royal Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Société Générale SA are reported preparing a plan to give BP a $9 billion standby letter of credit.
• New York Times reports that The Economist magazine is involved in a photo manipulation controversy over its altering a Reuters photo by Larry Downing on May 28 of Barack Obama with Thad W. Allen and Charlotte Randolph (Lafourche Parish, Louisiana president) on the beach in front an oil rig. In the photo Allen and Randolph were removed. Obama was looking down at beach debris and what he was looking at was also cropped The photo was on the June 19 cover with the headline "Obama v. BP." Emma Duncan, deputy editor of The Economist, responded "I asked for Ms. Randolph to be removed because I wanted readers to focus on Mr. Obama, not because I wanted to make him look isolated. That wasn’t the point of the story. “The damage beyond the spill” referred to on the cover, and examined in the cover leader, was the damage not to Mr. Obama, but to business in America."

July 6-10

• July 6

• BP shares jump 6.5% in one day after it announces it will not issue more shares.
• Helix Energy Solutions Group CEO Owen Kratz says BP waited 6 weeks until June 10 before accepting an offer to use Helix Producer I at the spill. The Producer has a larger capacity than the Deepwater Horizon.

• July 7

• New website RestoreTheGulf.gov to replace deepwaterhorizonresponse.com as the official federal government website for the spill.
• Allen says Development Driller III is within 15 feet horizontally of the wellbore but wants to intercept it another 200 to 225 feet further down.
• Allen says Helix Producer is partially connected and should go into operation by July 10.
• CNN reports that BP may have to pay the U.S. 18.75% royalties for oil coming gushing out of the well.