On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deep-water Horizon /BP MC252 drilling pla

Question

On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deep-water Horizon /BP MC252 drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico caused the rig to sink and killed 11 workers. As the result, the oil began leaking into the Gulf creating the largest spill in American history to date. Over the course of 87 days an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil were released into the Gulf. Although research continues to determine the full extent of the damage, we know that this spill impacted wildlife, habitats, fishing communities, and commerce along the large coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, and Florida. a. Develop a kinetic diagram to show the relationships of the oil spill and environmental processes that will happen as the result of oil spills. b. Develop a characteristic diagram for the impacted ecosystems and model for the impacted areas.

Explanation / Answer

ANSWER:

              The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion refers to the April 20, 2010 explosion and subsequent fire on the Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU), which was owned and operated by Transocean and drilling for BP in the Macon do Prospect oil field about 40 miles (60 km) southeast of the Louisiana coast. The explosion killed 11 workers and injured 16 others. The explosion caused the Deepwater Horizon to burn and sink, resulting in a massive offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the world, and the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history

The "Deepwater Horizon" was a floating semi-submersible drilling unit — a fifth-generation, ultra-Deepwater, dynamically positioned, column-stabilized drilling rig owned by Transocean and built in Korea. The platform was 396 feet (121 m) long and 256 feet (78 m) wide and could operate in waters up to 8,000 feet (2,400 m) deep, to a maximum drill depth of 30,000 feet (9,100 m). The platform commenced drilling in February 2010 at a water depth of approximately 5,000 feet (1,500 m) At the time of the explosion the rig was drilling an exploratory well The Department of the Interior exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact study after concluding that a massive oil spill was unlikely. In addition, following a loosening of regulations in 2008, BP was not required to file a detailed blowout plan. By April 20, 2010 the Deepwater Horizon well operation was already running five weeks late. On March 10, 2010, a BP executive e-mailed the Minerals Management Service that there was a stuck pipe and well control situation at the drilling site, and that BP would have to plug back the well. A draft of a BP memo in April 2010 warned that the cementing of the casing was unlikely to be successful.[ Halliburton has said that it had finished cementing 20 hours before the fire, but had not yet set the final cement plug. A special nitrogen-foamed cement was used which is more difficult to handle than standard cement.

A House Energy and Commerce Committee statement in June 2010 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. On July 22, Sky News reported that in a survey commissioned by Transocean workers on Deepwater Horizon raised concerns "about poor equipment reliability, which they believed was a result of drilling priorities taking precedence over maintenance."[ The survey, carried out in March 2010, said "less than half of the workers interviewed said they felt they could report actions leading to a potentially "risky" situation without any fear of reprisal ... many workers entered fake data to try to circumvent the system. As a result, the company's perception of safety on the rig was distorted", the report concluded. On July 23, 2010 The New York Times reported that crew members had appeared before a federal panel of investigators, saying that power failures, computer crashes and emergency equipment leaks had occurred within a few weeks of the explosion

The explosion was followed by a fire that engulfed the platform. After burning for more than a day, Deepwater Horizon sank on April 22, 2010.] The Coast Guard stated to CNN on April 22, 2010 that they received word of the sinking at approximately 10:21 am. BP subsequently[when?] produced a report that suggests that the ignition source for the explosion and subsequent fire was as a result of the released hydrocarbons being ingested into the air intakes of the diesel generators, and engulfing the deck area where the exhaust outlets for the main generators were emitting hot exhaust gas

Discovery of oil spill

On the morning of April 22, 2010 (two days after the blowout accident), CNN quoted Coast Guard Petty Officer Ashley Butler as saying that "oil was leaking from the rig at the rate of about 8,000 barrels (340,000 US gallons; 1,300,000 liters) of crude per day." That afternoon, as a large oil slick spread, Butler warned of a leak of up to 700,000 US gallons (17,000 bbl.) of diesel fuel, and BP Vice President David Rainey termed the incident as being a potential "major spill."

On April 22, 2010, BP announced that it was deploying a remotely operated underwater vehicle to the site to assess whether oil was flowing from the well. Other reports indicated that BP was using more than one remotely operated underwater vehicle and that the purpose was to attempt to plug the well pipe. On April 23, 2010, a remotely operated underwater vehicle reportedly found no oil leaking from the sunken rig and no oil flowing from the well. The following day, April 24, 2010, Landry announced that a damaged wellhead was indeed leaking oil into the Gulf and described it as "a very serious spill The oil slick produced by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill covered as much 28,958 square miles (75,000 square kilometers), an area about the size of South Carolina, with the extent and location of the slick changing from day to day depending on weather conditions. By the first week in June, oil had come ashore in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, with significant wildlife fatalities in Louisiana. In the weeks following the accident, scientists discovered enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, raising concerns about ecological harm far below the surface that would be difficult to assess.

(a) Fish and Wildlife Collection Report

An oiled pelican in coastal Louisiana. Credit: Carolyn Cole, Los Angeles Times.

On May 30, 2010, the Unified Area Command published its first "Consolidated Fish and Wildlife Collection Report." These are the consolidated numbers of collected fish and wildlife that have been reported to the Unified Area Command from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), incident area commands, rehabilitation centers and other authorized sources operating within the Deepwater Horizon/BP incident impact area. These data reflect only the initial, field-level, evaluation and they do not reflect a final determination of the cause of injury, or death. Not all of the injured or dead fish and wildlife reflected in these numbers were necessarily caused by the Deepwater Horizon/BP incident. On the June 16 the report included:

Birds: 1,746 birds collected, with 1,014 of these visibly oiled. 997 birds were dead; 749 were captured alive.

Sea Turtles: 528 collected; 400 were dead; 128 were alive.

Mammals, Including Dolphins: 51 collected in the spill zone; 47 of those were dead. Determination whether oil was the cause of death is pending for dolphins.

Wildlife biologists believe that many more wildlife will ultimately be killed by the oil, but their toll is hidden because their bodies have sunk in the open ocean, or been eaten by scavengers.

By way of comparison, the Exxon Valdez oil spill killed between 350,000 and 600,000 birds, along with thousands of sea otters and other marine creatures.

Government response

A boom on the Louisiana coast collecting oil from the Deepwater Horizon accident. Credit: Louisiana Fish and Wildlife.     

Oil-soaked hands of a worker from the Deepwater Horizon clean-up. Credit: U.S. Coast Guard.

(b) Economic Impacts

Shrimp harvest in Louisiana. Credit: Louisiana Fish and Wildlife.

The economic impacts from the spill originate in the communities affected by the spill, but then ripple throughout the entire nation. Commercial fishermen in the Gulf harvested more than 1 billion pounds of fish and shellfish in 2008. In addition, there are approximately 5.7 million recreational fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico region who took 25 million fishing trips in 2008. Fisherman in areas closed to fishing, or whose catch are harmed by the spill, feel the immediate effects, as do hotels, restaurants and other businesses that are tied to tourism, conventions and recreation in the Gulf Coast. The reduction in the harvest of oysters, shrimp and other seafood caused prices to rise sharply in the weeks following the spill, which in turn caused food prices to rise in restaurants as far away as New York City. The mere threat of oil caused thousands of hotel cancellations in the run-up to the usually hectic Memorial Day weekend.

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