Oil platform disasters

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 37. Chapters: Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Deepwater Horizon explosion, Montara oil spill, Piper Alpha, Ixtoc I oil spill, Lake Peigneur, Transocean Marianas, Petrobras 36, Kab 101, Oil Pollution Act of 1990, Mariner Energy, Jebel al-Zayt oil spill, The Cullen Reports. Excerpt: 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 an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which flowed for three months in 2010. It is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. The spill stemmed from a sea-floor oil gusher that resulted from the April 20, 2010, explosion of Deepwater Horizon, which drilled on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. The explosion killed 11 men working on the platform and injured 17 others. On July 15, 2010, the leak was stopped by capping the gushing wellhead, after it had released about 4.9 million barrels (780,000 m) of crude oil. An estimated 53,000 barrels per day (8,400 m³/d) escaped from the well just before it was capped. It is believed that the daily flow rate diminished over time, starting at about 62,000 barrels per day (9,900 m³/d) and decreasing as the reservoir of hydrocarbons feeding the gusher was gradually depleted. On September 19, 2010, the relief well process was successfully completed, and the federal government declared the well "effectively dead". The spill caused extensive damage to marine and wildlife habitats and to the Gulf's fishing and tourism industries. In late November 2010, 4,200 square miles (11,000 km²) of the Gulf were re-closed to shrimping after tar balls were found in shrimpers' nets. The amount of Louisiana shoreline affected by oil grew from 287 miles (462 km) in July to 320 miles (510 km) in late November 2010. In January 2011, an oil spill commissioner reported that tar balls continue to wash up, oil sheen trails are seen in the wake of fishing boats, wetlands marsh grass remains fouled and dying, and that crude oil lies offshore in deep water and in fine silts and sands onshore. A research team found oil on the bottom of the seafloor in late February 2011 that did not seem to be degrading. Skimmer ships, floating containment booms, anchored barriers, sand-filled bar