What background information is useful for understanding the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill?
The 2010 Gulf Oil Spill is one of the largest oil spills that have ever taken part in the world since a lot of oil was gashed out of the deepwater horizon drilling rig. The incident of the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill took place on date of 20th in the month of April, 2010 approximately nine forty five in the night (BP internal investigation,2010). The incident caused a lot of the oil to spill out from the well and covered an extensive part of the water thus causing various harmful effects to the environment. The main cause that arouse to the explosion of the deepwater horizon drilling rig was investigated and found out to be the overflow of the excessive methane gas from the underground well that was dug beneath the water surface.
The Gulf Oil rig was a property of the Transocean limited was constructed by the Hyundai Heavy Industries which is one of the famous companies in South Korea. Because of its appropriate position and the amount of the oil that was drilled, the British petroleum company rented the well for six years beginning on the month of March of 2008 to the month of September of the year 2013 (Guardian. Com). The well just before the explosion took place was producing almost sixty two thousands barrels of oils in a single day. The oil well was located in the Gulf of Mexico which is almost sixty six kilometers from the coast of Louisiana.
Since there was high pressure which was built because of the depth of the water that was above the oil well, the methane gas was forced to eject from the well since the gas had expanded and could no longer withstand the pressure that was subjected by the methane gas. Therefore, the methane gas after expanding, found a way out from the well through the drilled columns that were used to transport the crude oil from the strata layers of the ocean bed. On reaching on the platform which is the surface of the oil well on the water surface, the gas expanded because of the atmospheric pressure which caused the gas to ignite and eventually the oil well busted into flames. The entire Gulf was covered by large fires that consumed the petroleum products that were available on the platform of the drilling well. The fire continued for various hours making it difficult for the workers to continue with their normal operations of mining the oil.
Most of the employee that were currently working in the oil well site managed to escape from death that was caused by the burning fire flames. Other workers were rescued from the intense fire by the Red Cross team which was informed immediately the oil well broke into fire flames. The rescue of the workers who eventually were saved from the fire was conducted through helicopters and life boats that were sent immediately to the site which was by then being consumed by the fire that was being generated by the oil which was a petroleum product. However, among all the workers that were on the working shift that night, eleven of them were never seen again even after conducting a thorough search that lasted for three days in the ocean and even at the shore line. After the search was completed and no evidence of the eleven workers, it was assumed that they were killed by the flames of the fire. Several efforts that were directed to the Deepwater Horizon well by the rescue ships for the main purpose of extinguishing the fire were in vain. The fire lasted for a long duration of thirty six hours before the flames could be extinguished on the early morning of the 22nd of the month of April 2010.
What are the controversies they have come to light as a result of the spill itself?
There are various controversies that are raised over the incident of the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill that lead to the death of eleven workers and the destruction of the natural environment. The first and major controversy that is raised over the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill is that the British petroleum company BP is the main cause of the explosion of the well and all the other outcomes that the spill of the well caused such as the death of the eleven workers who were killed in the fire that night and the destruction of the surrounding of the coast of Louisiana.
Most of the petroleum industries and the people affirm this claim because the British Petroleum company had adamantly increased the production of the oil that was produced in single day so that it would be able to sell out more of the oil and make more profitable gains. The BP oil company increased the production of the oil from 53,000 barrels from a single day to 63,000 of barrel so that the production of the oil could fall within the margins of the profits that the company expected to accomplish in the stock market. Because of the increase in the production of the oil barrel in the oil well, the pressure beneath the oil well accumulated thus making the methane gas that was also among the production product to expand thus exploding into flames.
This was the major cause of the fire that caused a lot of destruction to the coast of Louisiana thus discouraging the tourists from visiting the coast. The oil spill in the surface of the water also caused the death of the marine life such as the fish and the plants that are also a source of revenue to some of the nations that boarder the ocean. Therefore, after several claims from the other industries and the home security federal investigations were made concerning the major causes of the fire and the results indicated that the BP was indeed responsible for the cause of the fire that broke out in the night of the date of 20th in the month of April, 2010.
Another controversy that was raised over the Gulf Oil Spill is that the British petroleum company was supposed to refund the losses that had encored the oil well. Since the BP Company had rented the well for only a short period of time and within the short duration of time is when the incident of the fire broke out. The BP Company therefore declined the claim that it was supposed to pay for the losses of the entire destructions that were caused by the fire; the company claimed that it was only responsible for payment of the well but not all the damages that were caused by the spill of the oil such as the death of the marine life. The BP Company also claims that it is not responsible for the reduction of the tourist who is supposed to visit the coast of Louisiana since the removal of the oil should be an entire responsibility of the petroleum companies.
The methods that were supposed to be used for the cleaning of the oceans and making it free from the oil was another controversy that was raised by the scientists. The scientists claimed that natural methods were the appropriate means that the oil could be used to extract the oil from the water surface. This was contrary to the decision that was made by the home security federal organization which suggested that the natural methods would take a longer duration before the oil could be fully removed from the surface of the water thus preferred other methods such as the use of the explosive to cause burning fires that would consume the entire oil. The security also claimed that severe destruction could be encored to the marine animals if the oil layer could last for a longer duration on top of the water surface thus the need to use faster means that could remove the oil spill faster even though it might have negative effectives to the society.
What stakeholders or groups of people have been affected by the spill?
There are several stakeholders and groups that have been affected either directly or indirectly by the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill. The first stakeholder that were severely affected by the oil spill and that fire was the British petroleum company. This is because the BP Company had leased the oil well for six year in which it had expected to gain a lot of profitable returns. Since the well produced numerous barrels of oils in a single day, the BP petroleum company decided to rent the well out for the purposes of making ambiguous project. However, this was not the case when the well caught flames of fires and eventually sank into the water. The company faced a lot of loss since the money that it had incurred in the project was all lost in the loss that was caused by the fire.
The second shareholder company that was affected by the spill of the oil and the fire was the caused by the methane gas is the Transocean industry since it owned the entire Gulf Oil rig. Although the oil rig was managed by the Bp Company because it had rented it, it was a personal property of the Transocean industry. Thus the spill of the oil and the fire that burned down the Gulf Oil rig was a major blow to the entire process of the Transocean industry since the company resources were all destroyed making the industry to encore losses instead of profitable returns.
Another group of people that were affected by the spill of the oil was the tourist and the fishermen who earn the daily living from the fishing industry. The tourist could not visit the coast of Louisiana as they usually did since it was covered by the oil thus making the entire ocean shore inaccessible by human beings. The fishermen were also unable to fish because the water surface was covered with the oil layers and thus making the marine animals to either die or migrate to other places making it very difficult for them to fish.
Work Cited
BP internal investigation, http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9034902&contentId=7064891, retrieved on 2nd December, 2010
Guardian. Com http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/29/bp-oil-spill-timeline-deepwater-horizon retrieved on 2nd December, 2010
Guardian. Com http://www.survey.lsu.edu/downloads/OilSpillSurveyReport.pdf, retrieved on 2nd December, 2010
http://www.onearth.org/article/furious-growth-and-cost-cuts-led-to-bp-accidents-past-and-present, retrieved on 2nd December, 2010
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/A-Crude-Awakening-in-the-Gulf-of-Mexico.html?c=y&page=3,retrieved on 2nd December, 2010
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20101029_seafood.html, retrieved on 2nd December, 2010
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-ongoing-oil-spill-response ,retrieved on 2nd December, 2010
