In pursuit of oil, a person goes into the tundra, climbs mountains and conquers the seabed. But oil does not always surrender without a fight, and as soon as a person loses his vigilance, "black gold" turns into a real black death for all living things. This happened quite recently in the Gulf of Mexico, where the state-of-the-art DeepWater Horizon oil platform dealt a crushing blow to nature and human pride.

An object: oil platform DeepWater Horizon, 80 km off the coast of Louisiana (USA), Gulf of Mexico.

The ultra-deepwater oil platform was leased by BP to develop the promising Macondo field. The length of the platform reached 112 m, width - 78 m, height - 97.4 m, it went under water by 23 meters and had a mass of over 32 thousand tons.

Victims: 13 people, 11 of them died during the fire, 2 more - during the aftermath. 17 people received injuries of varying severity.

Source: US Coast Guard

Causes catastrophes

Major disasters do not have a single cause, which was confirmed by the explosion of the DeepWater Horizon oil platform. This accident was the result of a whole chain of violations and technical malfunctions. Experts say that a catastrophe on the platform was bound to happen, and it was only a matter of time.

Interestingly, several parallel investigations into the causes of the disaster were carried out at once, which led to unequal conclusions. So in the report made by BP, only 6 main causes of the accident are indicated, and main reason The accident is called the human factor. And a more authoritative report by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulatory and Protection (BOEMRE) and the US Coast Guard lists 35 root causes, 21 of which are entirely BP's fault.

So who is to blame for the DeepWater Horizon explosion and subsequent environmental disaster? The answer is simple - the BP company, which was chasing profit, and in this pursuit, neglected elementary safety rules and deep-sea drilling technologies. In particular, well cementing technologies were violated, and specialists who arrived to analyze the cement were simply expelled from the rig. have also been disabled important systems control and security, so no one knew what was really going on under the ocean floor.

The result is an explosion and fire on the platform, a colossal oil spill and the title of one of the largest environmental disasters in the history of civilization.

Chronicle of events

Problems on the platform began almost from the first day of its installation, that is, from the beginning of February 2010. The drilling of the well was carried out in a hurry, and the reason is simple and banal: the DeepWater Horizon platform was leased by BP, and every day it cost half a million (!) Dollars!

However, the real problems began in the early morning of April 20, 2010. The well was drilled, a depth of just over 3,600 meters below the bottom was reached (the depth of the ocean in this place reaches one and a half kilometers), and it remained to complete work on strengthening the well with cement in order to securely “lock” oil and gas.

This process in a simplified form goes like this. Special cement is fed into the well through the casing string, then drilling fluid, which, by its pressure, displaces the cement and forces it to rise up the well. Cement hardens quickly enough and creates a reliable “cork”. And then sea water is fed into the well, which washes out the drilling fluid and any debris. A large protective device is installed on top of the well - a preventer, which, in the event of an oil and gas leak, simply blocks their access to the top.

Since the morning of April 20, cement has been pumped into the well, and by lunchtime the first tests were already carried out to test the reliability of the cement “plug”. Two specialists flew to the platform to check the quality of cementing. This test was supposed to last about 12 hours, but the management, who could not wait any longer, decided to abandon the standard procedure, and at 14.30 the specialists left the platform with their equipment, and soon drilling fluid began to be fed into the well.

Unexpectedly, at 18.45, the pressure in the drill string increased sharply, reaching 100 atmospheres in a few minutes. This meant that gas was leaking from the well. However, at 19.55, water was pumped, which simply could not be done. In the next hour and a half, the pumping of water was carried out with varying success, as sharp pressure surges forced the work to be interrupted.

Finally, at 21.47 the well does not withstand, gas rushes up the drill string, and in 21.49 there was a huge explosion. After 36 hours, the platform tilted heavily and safely went to the bottom.

The oil slick reached the shores of Louisiana. Source: Greenpeace

Consequences of the explosion

The accident on the oil platform has grown into an environmental disaster, the scale of which is simply amazing.

The main cause of environmental disaster is the oil spill. Oil from the damaged well (as well as associated gases) flowed continuously for 152 days (until September 19, 2010), during which time the ocean waters took more than 5 million barrels of oil. This oil has caused irreparable damage to the ocean and many coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico.

In total, almost 1,800 kilometers of coastlines were contaminated with oil, white sandy beaches turned into black oil fields, and an oil slick on the surface of the ocean was visible even from space. Oil has caused the death of tens of thousands of marine animals and birds.

The fight against the consequences of oil pollution was carried out by tens of thousands of people. From the surface of the ocean, "black gold" was collected by special vessels (skimmers), and the beaches were cleaned only by hand - modern science cannot offer mechanized means to solve this problem, it is so difficult.

The main consequences of the oil spill were eliminated only by November 2011.

The accident had not only ecological, but also colossal (and the most negative) economic consequences. Thus, BP has lost about $22 billion (this includes losses from the loss of the well, and payments to the victims, and the costs of eliminating the consequences of the disaster). But even more significant losses were suffered by the coastal regions of the Gulf of Mexico. This is due to the collapse of the tourism sector (who will go to rest on dirty oil beaches?), with the ban on fishing and other trades, and so on. As a result of the oil spill, tens of thousands of people were left without work, who had nothing to do with this very oil.

However, the catastrophe also had completely unexpected consequences. For example, when studying an oil spill, bacteria unknown to science that feed on oil products were discovered! It is now believed that these microorganisms significantly reduced the effects of the disaster, as they absorbed a huge amount of methane and other gases. It is possible that on the basis of these bacteria, scientists will be able to create microorganisms that in the future will help to quickly and cheaply deal with oil spills.

Workers clean up the aftermath of an oil spill. Port Fourchon, Louisiana. Photo: Greenpeace

Current position

Currently, no work is underway at the site of the sinking of the DeepWater Horizon platform. However, the Macondo field, which was developed by BP using the platform, stores too much oil and gas (about 7 million tons), and therefore new platforms will definitely come here in the future. True, the same people will drill the bottom - employees of BP.

No comments. Photo: Greenpeace

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010 is considered one of the largest man-made disasters, as a result of which irreparable damage was caused to the environment.

The Deepwater Horizon ultra-deep drilling platform was built by the shipbuilding company Hyundai Industries ( South Korea) commissioned by R&B Falcon (Transocean Ltd.). This platform was launched in 2001, and after some time it was leased to the British oil and gas company British Petroleum (BP). The lease term has been repeatedly extended, the last time - until the beginning of 2013.

In February 2010, BP began developing the Macondo field in the Gulf of Mexico. A well was drilled at a depth of 1500 meters.

Oil platform explosion

On April 20, 2010, a fire and explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform 80 km off the coast of the US state of Louisiana. The fire lasted more than 35 hours, unsuccessfully tried to extinguish it from the fire boats that arrived at the scene of the accident. On April 22, the platform sank in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

As a result of the accident, 11 people went missing, their searches were carried out until April 24, 2010 and did not yield any results. 115 people were evacuated from the platform, including 17 with injuries. Subsequently, world news agencies reported that two more people died during the liquidation of the consequences of the accident.

Oil spill

From April 20 to September 19, the liquidation of the consequences of the accident continued. Meanwhile, according to some experts, about 5,000 barrels of oil fell into the water every day. According to other sources, up to 100,000 barrels per day fell into the water, as the US Secretary of the Interior announced in May 2010.

By the end of April, the oil slick reached the mouth of the Mississippi River, and in July 2010, oil was discovered on the beaches of the US state of Texas. In addition, the underwater oil plume stretched for 35 km in length at a depth of more than 1000 meters.

For 152 days, about 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico through damaged well pipes. The area of ​​the oil slick was 75,000 km².

Cleanup

After the Deepwater Horizon sank, attempts began to seal the well, and later began the elimination of the consequences of the oil spill and the fight against the spread of the oil slick.

Almost immediately after the accident, specialists put plugs on the damaged pipe, and began work on installing a steel dome, which was supposed to cover the damaged platform and prevent oil spills. The first installation attempt was not successful, and on May 13 it was decided to install a smaller dome. The oil leak was fully established only on August 4, due to the fact that drilling fluid and cement were pumped into the emergency well. For complete sealing of the well, two additional discharge wells had to be drilled, into which cement was also pumped. Full sealing was announced on September 19, 2010.

To eliminate the consequences, tugboats, barges, rescue boats, and BP submarines were raised. They were assisted by ships, aircraft and naval equipment of the Navy and the US Air Force. More than 1,000 people participated in the aftermath, about 6,000 military personnel were involved National Guard USA. Spraying of dispersants (active substances used to settle oil slicks) was used to limit the area of ​​the oil slick. Booms were also installed to contain the spill area. Mechanical oil recovery was used, both with the help of special vessels and manually by volunteers on the US coast. In addition, the experts decided to resort to controlled burning of oil slicks.

Incident investigation

According to an internal investigation by BP security officials, the accident was blamed on worker error, technical issues and design errors of the oil platform itself. The prepared report stated that rig personnel misinterpreted pressure readings during a well leak test, causing a stream of hydrocarbons that had risen from the bottom of the well to fill the drilling platform through the vent. After the explosion, as a result technical shortcomings platform, the anti-reset fuse did not work, which should have automatically blocked oil well.

In mid-September 2010, a report was published by the Bureau of Oceanic Resources Management, Regulation and Protection and the US Coast Guard. It contained 35 causes of the accident, with 21 of them citing BP as the sole culprit. In particular, the main reason was the neglect of safety standards to reduce the cost of well development. In addition, the platform employees did not receive comprehensive information about the work on the well, and as a result, their ignorance was superimposed on other errors, which led to well-known consequences. Other reasons cited include poor well design that did not provide sufficient oil and gas barriers, insufficient cementing, and last-minute changes to the well development project.

Transocean Ltd, the owners of the oil platform, and Halliburton, the company that carried out the subsea cementing of the well, were named partly responsible.

Litigation and compensation

The trial of the oil spill in the Mexico spill over the British company BP will begin on February 25, 2013 in New Orleans (USA). In addition to lawsuits from the federal authorities, the British company was also sued by US states and municipalities. In accordance with US law, BP will have to pay a fine ranging from 1.1 to 4.3 thousand dollars for each barrel of oil spilled as a result of the accident. In February 2013, it became known that the company managed to negotiate with the US authorities to reduce the amount of penalties by $3.4 billion. The reason for the change in the amount of compensation was the fact that 810,000 barrels of oil were collected and did not get into environment. Thus, the size of the maximum fine is $17.6 billion. The final amount of compensation will depend on the court order.

In addition, in the spring of 2012, an agreement was concluded with the claimants' committee on the amount of compensation: more than 100,000 American entrepreneurs and individuals receive more than $7.8 billion in compensation.

Also in November 2012, BP agreed with the US authorities to pay $4.5 billion in fines over five years.

Environmental implications

After the accident, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico were one-third closed for fishing, while an almost complete ban on fishing was introduced.

1,100 miles of state coastline from Florida to Louisiana were polluted, dead were constantly found on the coast marine life. In particular, about 600 sea turtles, 100 dolphins, more than 6,000 birds and many other mammals were found dead. As a result of the oil spill, mortality among whales and dolphins increased in subsequent years. Ecologists estimate that the death rate of bottlenose dolphins has increased 50 times.

Tropical coral reefs located in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico also suffered enormous damage.

Oil has even seeped into the waters of coastal reserves and marshes, which play an important role in maintaining the life of wildlife and migratory birds.

According to recent studies, today the Gulf of Mexico has almost completely recovered from the damage suffered. American oceanographers have tracked the growth of reef-building corals that cannot live in polluted water, and found that corals reproduce and grow at their usual rhythm. Biologists also note a slight increase in the average water temperature in the Gulf of Mexico.

Some researchers expressed concerns about the impact of the oil accident on the climate-forming Gulf Stream. It has been suggested that the current cooled by 10 degrees and began to break up into separate undercurrents. Indeed, some weather anomalies (for example, strong winter frosts in Europe) have occurred since the oil spill. However, scientists still do not agree on whether the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is the primary cause of climate change and whether it affected the Gulf Stream.

The tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico showed how a man with his own hands can destroy nature with the help of nature within a few weeks. While BP is urgently looking for money to restore the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and the US authorities are deciding what to do with offshore drilling, we propose to recall the 10 largest black gold spills on the water in the history of mankind.

1.In 1978 tanker Amoco Cadiz ran aground off the coast of Brittany (France). Due to stormy weather, the rescue operation was not possible. At that time, this accident was the largest environmental catastrophe in the history of Europe. It is estimated that 20,000 birds died. More than 7 thousand people took part in the rescue work. 223,000 tons of oil spilled into the water, forming a 2,000 square kilometer slick. Oil has also spread to 360 kilometers of the French coast. According to some scientists, the ecological balance in this region has not yet been restored.

2. In 1979 the largest accident in history occurred on the Mexican oil platform Ixtoc I. As a result, up to 460 thousand tons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. Elimination of the consequences of the accident took almost a year. Curiously, for the first time in history, special flights were organized to evacuate sea turtles from the disaster zone. The leak was stopped only nine months later, during which time 460,000 tons of oil got into the Gulf of Mexico. The total amount of damage is estimated at $1.5 billion.

3. Also in 1979 the largest oil spill in history caused by a collision of tankers. Then two tankers collided in the Caribbean Sea: Atlantic Empress and Aegean Captain. As a result of the accident, almost 290 thousand tons of oil got into the sea. One of the tankers sank. By a happy coincidence, the disaster occurred on the high seas, and not a single coast (the closest was the island of Trinidad) was not affected.

4. In March 1989 oil tanker "Exxon Valdez" American company Exxon ran aground in Prince Williams Bay off the coast of Alaska. More than 48,000 tons of oil spilled into the ocean through a hole in the ship. As a result, over 2.5 thousand square kilometers of the sea area was affected, 28 species of animals were endangered. The area of ​​the accident was difficult to access (it can only be reached by sea or by helicopter), which made it impossible for the services and rescuers to quickly respond. As a result of the disaster, about 10.8 million gallons of oil (about 260 thousand barrels or 40.9 million liters) spilled into the sea, forming an oil slick of 28 thousand square kilometers. In total, the tanker was carrying 54.1 million gallons of oil. About 2,000 kilometers of coastline were polluted with oil.

5. In 1990 Iraq took over Kuwait. The troops of the anti-Iraqi coalition, formed by 32 states, defeated the Iraqi army and liberated Kuwait. However, in preparation for the defense, the Iraqis opened the valves at the oil terminals and emptied several oil-laden tankers. This step was taken in order to make landings more difficult. Up to 1.5 million tons of oil (different sources give different data) spilled into the Persian Gulf. As they walked fighting, with the consequences of the disaster for some time no one fought. Oil covered about 1 thousand square meters. km. surface of the bay and polluted about 600 km. coasts. In order to prevent further oil spills, US aircraft bombed several Kuwaiti oil pipelines.

6 In January 2000 a major oil spill occurred in Brazil. More than 1.3 million liters of oil fell into the waters of the Guanabara Bay, on the shore of which Rio de Janeiro is located, from the pipeline of the Petrobras company, which led to the largest environmental disaster in the history of the metropolis. According to biologists, nature will need almost a quarter of a century to fully restore environmental damage. Brazilian biologists compared the scale of the ecological disaster with the consequences of the war in the Persian Gulf. Fortunately, the oil was stopped. She went downstream four urgently built barrage barriers and "stuck" only on the fifth. Some of the raw materials have already been removed from the surface of the river, some spilled through special diversion channels dug on an emergency basis. The remaining 80 thousand gallons out of a million (4 million liters) that fell into the reservoir, the workers scooped out by hand.

7. In November 2002 off the coast of Spain, the tanker Prestige broke up and sank. 64 thousand tons of fuel oil got into the sea. €2.5 million was spent to eliminate the consequences of the accident. After this incident, the EU closed single-hull tankers access to its waters. The wreck is 26 years old. It was built in Japan and is owned by a company registered in Liberia, which, in turn, is managed by a Greek company registered in the Bahamas and certified by an American organization. The ship was chartered by a Russian company operating in Switzerland, which transports oil from Latvia to Singapore. The Spanish government has filed a $5 billion lawsuit against the US Maritime Bureau for the role it played in the Prestige tanker disaster off the coast of Galicia last November.

8. In August 2006 a tanker in the Philippines crashed. Then 300 km of the coast in two provinces of the country, 500 hectares of mangrove forests and 60 hectares of algae plantations were polluted. The Taklong Marine Reserve was also affected, with 29 coral species and 144 fish species. About 3,000 Filipino families were affected by the oil spill. The Solar 1 tanker of the Sunshine Maritne Development Corporation was hired to carry 1,800 tons of fuel oil from the Philippine state-owned company Petron. Local fishermen, who used to be able to catch up to 40-50 kg of fish in a day, now find it difficult to catch up to 10 kg. To do this, they have to go far from places where pollution spreads. But even this fish cannot be sold. The province, which just dropped out of the list of the 20 poorest regions in the Philippines, looks set to fall back into poverty for years to come.

9. November 11, 2007 2009, a storm in the Kerch Strait caused an unprecedented emergency in the Azov and Black Seas - four ships sank in one day, six more ran aground, and two tankers were damaged. More than 2,000 tons of fuel oil spilled from the broken Volgoneft-139 tanker into the sea, about 7,000 tons of sulfur were on the sunken dry cargo ships. Rosprirodnadzor estimated the environmental damage caused by the crash of several ships in the Kerch Strait at 6.5 billion rubles. The damage only from the death of birds and fish in the Kerch Strait was estimated at about 4 billion rubles.

10. April 20, 2010 At 10:00 pm local time, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon platform, causing a massive fire. As a result of the explosion, seven people were injured, four of them are in critical condition, 11 people are missing. In total, at the time of the emergency, 126 people worked on the drilling platform, which is larger than two football fields, and about 2.6 million liters of diesel fuel were stored. The platform's capacity was 8,000 barrels per day. It is estimated that up to 5,000 barrels (about 700 tons) of oil per day are poured into the water in the Gulf of Mexico. However, experts do not exclude that in the near future this figure may reach 50,000 barrels per day due to the appearance of additional leaks in the well pipe. In early May 2010, US President Barack Obama called what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico "a potentially unprecedented environmental disaster." Oil slicks were found in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico (one slick 16 km long, 90 meters thick at a depth of up to 1300 meters). Oil will probably flow from the well until August.

The ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico continues. Numerous attempts to stop the oil leak proved futile. Oil continues to flow into the bay. Animals are dying. Ecologists from the Pelican mission, who conduct research in the region, discover giant accumulations of oil at great depths, the depth of which reaches 90 meters. "Deep-sea spots" are dangerous because they deplete the supply of oxygen necessary for living organisms. Now its level has already decreased by thirty percent. “If this continues, in a couple of months the flora and fauna of the bay may die,” environmentalists say.

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1) An American brown pelican (left) stands next to its pure counterparts on one of the islands in the Gulf of Barataria. Numerous bird colonies nest on this island. Thousands of brown pelicans, herons and pink spoonbills live here, many of which are currently affected by. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

2) Brown pelicans fly over an oil boom that surrounds their island in Barataria Bay. Pelican is a symbol of the state of Louisiana, but in the 60s of the last century, these birds practically disappeared in the region due to the widespread use of insecticides. However, later the population of these birds managed to be revived. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

3) Dead fish on the beach of Grand Isle, Louisiana. The British Petroleum company uses chemical reagents - the so-called. dispersants that break down oil. However, their use leads to water poisoning. Dispersants destroy the circulatory system of fish, and they die from profuse bleeding. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

4) An oil-covered carcass of a northern gannet on a Grand Isle beach, . The coast of the state was the first to meet the oil slick and suffered the most from this one. (REUTERS / Sean Gardner)

5) Biologist Mandy Tamlin of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries pulls a dolphin carcass out of the water off the coast of Grand Isle, Louisiana. The body will be autopsied to determine the exact cause of death. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

6) A bird flies over an oil slick in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico near the island of East Grand Terre, which is located off the coast of Louisiana. The amount of oil that is in the bay at depths is many times greater than that which rises to the surface of the water. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

7) An oil-coated Atlantic gull bobs in the surf off East Grand Terre, Louisiana. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

8) British Petroleum prohibits workers from distributing photographs of dead animals to the press. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Oil-covered dead fish swim off the coast of East Grand Terre Island on June 4, 2010 near East Grand Terre Island, Louisiana. Fish feed on plankton contaminated by the dispersants, and the toxins spread throughout the food chain. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

10) A bird carcass in oil floats in the surf off the island of East Grand Terre on June 3. Ecologists believe that millions of different migratory birds that winter on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico will suffer, and a reduction in the population of sea turtles, bluefin tuna and other species of marine animals will hit the ecosystem of the entire Atlantic Ocean. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

11) Hermit crabs in reddish brown oil on the coast of Dauphin Island, Alabama. It is assumed that it will be possible to completely eliminate the accident only by August, and, possibly, it will be delayed for years. (AP Photo/Mobile Press-Register, John David Mercer)

12) Oiled pelican eggs nest on bird island in Barataria Bay, home to thousands of American brown pelicans, terns, gulls and roseate spoonbills. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

13) A dying heron chick sits in the mangroves on an island in Barataria Bay. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

14) The oil-covered body of a dead dolphin lies on the ground in Venice, Louisiana. This dolphin was spotted and picked up while flying over the southwestern region on the Mississippi River. "When we found this dolphin, it was literally stuffed with oil. The oil was just pouring out of it." - tell the contract workers who help the oilmen clean up the shore. (AP Photo/Plaquemines Parish Government)

15) A brown pelican covered in a thick layer of oil swims in the surf off the coast of East Grand Terre Island, Louisiana. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

16) Louisiana is dying en masse. Ecologists are trying to save the affected birds - the surviving individuals, mainly pelicans, are urgently delivered to the veterinary rehabilitation center. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

17) Now oil is already being collected on the beaches of Florida. According to the portal "Credits in Krasnodar", the US authorities prohibit fishing in new territories. A third of the US fishing area in the Gulf of Mexico has already been closed. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

18) A dead turtle lies on the shore in St. Louis Bay, Mississippi. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

19) Dead slab in the surf on the beach in Waveland, Mississippi. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

20) Danine Birtel, left, of the Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research Center, Patrick Hogan, right, of the International Bird Rescue Research Center, and Christina Schillesi wash an oil-stained pelican in Buras, Louisiana, on June 3. The center for victims of oil pollution provides washing vats, special drying rooms and a small pool in which birds, miraculously escaping death, learn to swim again. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Oil is a liquid raw material whose products are widely used in the world as fuel, lubricants, oils, etc. It is quite difficult to overestimate the value of "black gold". Every day, millions of barrels of oil are transported from oil-producing countries to end consumers via pipelines, wagons and tankers. Unfortunately, this is accompanied by accidents that occur due to wear and tear of equipment, human error or a combination of adverse circumstances. . of the year - biggest disaster which caused significant damage to the ecology of the region.

Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico

April 22, 2010 is considered a black day for North American environmentalists. On this day, an oil platform crashed off the coast of the United States. The cause of the flooding was a gas explosion and the ensuing fire. As a result of the accident, 24 went missing and has not been found so far. 117 other employees successfully evacuated, some of them had moderate injuries. Rescuers spent 36 hours trying to put out the fire, but all the measures had no effect. The platform was flooded.

The explosion also damaged a field pipeline that carried oil from the seabed to the platform. The damage caused the largest oil spill in US history. The oil leak was discovered only on 24 April. From that moment on, British Petroleum, with the support of the US federal services, began to carry out work to clean up the spill of raw materials.

Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico 2010

Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico 2010

Due to the disaster, about 5 million barrels of oil fell into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Every day, several tens of thousands of barrels of raw materials (which is equivalent to six million liters) entered the water. From the very first days after the discovery of the leak, measures were taken to eliminate it. However, they were not successful. The work was carried out for 86 days, and only on June 3 a favorable result was achieved. With the help of special robotics capable of working at depth, it was possible to remove the drill pipe. At the same time, a special protective screen was placed in its place. The remaining oil flows were sent to specially designated reservoirs.

Despite this, a huge amount of oil has already managed to get into the waters. Due to the action of wind and currents, the oil slick expanded to a significant area. In early August, the leak was completely eliminated. The well was cemented. In addition, a special relief well was created, which made it possible to reduce the fluid pressure. Both wells connected at a depth of five and a half kilometers.

Effects

The accident caused enormous damage to the ecology of the region. More than two thousand kilometers of the North American coast were contaminated with oil. Scientists noted the death of all invertebrates located in the radius of the leak. The mortality of dolphins and cetaceans has increased several times. At the same time, environmentalists say that the real figures are much worse than those given in official reports. Due to the accident, fishing was completely banned in the water area.

To eliminate the oil slick, controlled burning technology was actively used. The coast and bottom were cleaned with mechanical methods cleaning. The unique nature of the region, the combination of microorganisms, topography and favorable sea currents played into the hands of the rescuers. Despite the fact that the water area was completely cleared only a year and a half later, the delayed negative consequences of the disaster are still manifested to this day.