DEEPWATER HORIZON

INTRODUCTION
Deepwater
Horizon was
an
ultra-deepwater, dynamically
positioned, semisubmersible offshore oil drilling rig owned by Transocean. Built in 2001 in South Korea
by Hyundai Heavy Industries, the rig was commissioned by R&B Falcon, which later
became part of Transocean, registered in Majuro, Marshall Islands, and leased to BP from
2001 until September 2013. In September 2009, the rig drilled the deepest oil well in history
at a vertical depth of 35,050 ft (10,683 m) and measured depth of 35,055 ft (10,685 m) in
the Tiber Oil Field at Keathley Canyon block 102, approximately 250 miles (400 km)
southeast of Houston, in 4,132 feet (1,259 m) of water. On 20 April 2010, while drilling at
the Macondo Prospect, an explosion on the rig caused by a blowout killed 11 crewmen and
ignited a fireball visible from 40 miles (64 km) away. The resulting fire could not be
extinguished and, on 22 April 2010, Deepwater Horizon sank, leaving the well gushing at
the seabed and causing the largest oil spill in U.S. waters

Deepwater Horizon was a fifth-generation, RBS-8D design (i.e. model type),

deepwater, dynamically positioned, column-stabilized, semi-submersible mobile offshore
drilling unit, designed to drill subsea wells for oil exploration and production using an
18.75 in (476 mm), 15,000 psi (100,000 kPa) blowout preventer, and a 21 in (530 mm)
outside diameter marine riser.
Deepwater Horizon was the second semi-submersible rig constructed of a class of two,
although Deepwater Nautilus, its predecessor, is not dynamically positioned. The rig was
396 by 256 ft (121 by 78 m) and capable of operating in waters up to 8,000 feet (2,400 m)
deep, to a maximum drill depth of 30,000 ft (9,100 m). In 2010 it was one of approximately
200 deepwater offshore rigs capable of drilling in waters deeper than 5,000 ft
(1,500 m). Its American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) class notations were "A1, Column
Stabilized Drilling Unit, AMS, ACCU, DPS-3".

Drilling operations
Deepwater Horizon worked on wells in the Atlantis (BP 56%, BHP Billiton 44%)
and Thunder Horse (BP 75%, ExxonMobil25%) oil fields. It was described at times as a
"lucky" and "celebrated" rig, and in 2007 was still described as "one of the most powerful
rigs in the world". In 2006 it discovered oil in the Kaskida oil field, and in 2009 the
"giant" Tiber field. The well in the Tiber field has a vertical depth of 35,050 ft (10,683 m) and
a measured depth of 35,055 ft (10,685 m), below 4,132 ft (1,259 m) of water. The well was
the deepest oil well in the world, and more than 5,000 feet (1,500 m) further below the
seabed than the rig's official drilling specification stated on the company's fleet list.

In February 2010, Deepwater Horizon commenced drilling an exploratory well at the

Macondo Prospect (Mississippi Canyon Block 252), about 41 miles (66 km) off the
southeast coast of Louisiana, at a water depth of approximately 5,000 feet (1,500 m). The
Macondo prospect exploration rights were acquired by BP in 2009, with the prospect jointly
owned by BP (65%), Anadarko (25%) and MOEX Offshore 2007 (10%). Deepwater
Horizon was still working on the Macondo site on 20 April 2010, when a violent explosion
occurred leading to destruction of the rig and resulting oil spill. The well was in the final
stages of completion at the time; its cement casing was injected and hardening, and the rig
was due to move shortly to its next role as a semi-permanent production platform at the Nile
site followed by a return to the Kaskida field. The exploratory work was described as
"concluded" and permission had already been requested from MMS to terminate operations
at the Macondo site.
During its operational lifetime, the rig was actively in operation for 93% of its working life
(2,896 of 3,131 days). The remainder partly relates to time spent between sites.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

ANATOMY OF AN OIL SPILL

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing eleven people and setting
off the largest marine oil spill in world history. A few days later, underwater cameras
revealed that oil and gas were leaking from the ocean floor about 42 miles off the coast of
Louisiana. The oil well leaked 4.9 million barrels of oil before it was capped nearly 3 months
later on July 15, 2010.

THE DISASTER
The Deepwater Horizon rig sat 42 miles off the Louisiana shore, pumping oil up from deep
beneath the seafloor. On the night of April 20, a bubble of methane gas escaped from the
well and shot up the pipe towards the surface, causing an explosion and fire. This tragically

took the lives of 11 rig workers, while 115 others were successfully evacuated. Crude oil
and gases, buried deep beneath the seafloor, began leaking from the oil well 5,000 feet
down. Wind, waves and currents spread the oil across the oceans surface to form a slick,
which eventually covered around 5,000 square milesabout the size of Connecticut.

The Oil's Spread

The Gulf oil spill is recognized as the worst oil
U.S. history. Within days of the April 20, 2010
explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon
oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 people,
underwater cameras revealed the BP pipe was
and gas on the ocean floor about 42 miles off the
Louisiana. By the time the well was capped on July
(87 days later), an estimated 3.19 million barrels of
leaked into the Gulf.

spill

in

leaking
oil
coast
of
15, 2010
oil had

The well was located over 5,000 feet beneath the waters surface in the vast frontier of
the deep seaa permanently dark environment, marked by constantly cold temperatures
just above freezing and extremely high pressures. Scientists divide the ocean into at least
three zones, and the deep ocean accounts for about three-quarters of Earths total ocean
volume.
Mark Dodd, a wildlife biologist from Georgia's Department of Natural Resources, surveying
oiled sargassum seaweed in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in
2010.
Once the oil left the well, it spread throughout the water column. Some floated to the
ocean's surface to form oil slicks, which can spread more quickly by being pushed by
winds. Some hovered suspended in the midwater after rising from the wellhead like a
chimney and forming several layers of oil, dispersant and seawater mixtures drifting down
current; during the spill a 22-mile long oil plume was reported. This plume formed
because chemical dispersants, released into the water to break up the oil so it could wash

away, allowed the oil to mix with seawater and stay suspended below the surface. And
some oil sunk to the seafloor by gluing together falling particles in the water such as
bacteria and phytoplankton to form marine snow. As much as 20 percent of the spilled oil
may have ended up on top of and in the seafloor, damaging deep sea corals and potentially
damaging other ecosystems that are unseen at the surface.
Distressed Oiled Animals
At the surface, thick crude oil touched any animals
that had to move between air and water. This
includes seabirds, such as pelicans, who dipped
from the sky into the sea when they dove for fish.
With their insulating feathers coated, the birds spent
their time cleaning themselves instead of eating or
evading predators, and were often killed without
help from volunteers armed with soap. Also harmed
were those ocean creatures that come up to breathe at the surface, such as sea turtles and
dolphins. With mouths and nostrils clogged with oil, some of those animals suffocated at
sea.
Effects on Wildlife
There were some immediate impacts to the
animals of the Gulf of Mexico that could be seen
the naked eye: pelicans black with oil, fish bellybrown sludge, smothered turtles washed up on
beaches. But not much time has passed since
it will take many more years of monitoring and
research to understand what happened.

with
up in
the spill, and

Striped dolphins swim among emulsified oil patches on April 29, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico,
a few days after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The impact of the spill on fish communities is still largely unknown. Lab studies have shown
that oil can cause heart defects in the developing larvae of blue fin tuna and other fish, but
we won't know if this occurred in the wild until after those larvae would have grown
up. Some fish larvae populations actually grew after the spill, as they had more food in the
form of oil-eating microbes.
There were some reports of deformed wildlife after the spill. For years following the spill
there were reports of fish with lesions and deformities, and some reports of eyeless and
deformed shrimp after the spill. However, consuming Gulf seafood is now completely safe.
Over 1,000 miles of shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico, from Texas to Florida, was impacted
by oil from the Deepwater Horizon blowout. Much of this area has been cleaned, but eroded
shorelines are taking longer to recover and erosion rates have accelerated in these areas.

Using social science to assess the impact of the oil spill on tourism
The DWH oil spill had an adverse impact on many tourism related businesses such as
hotels, restaurants, retailers, and tour operators. Investigators analyzed DWH claims, news
reports, employment data, and conducted interviews with people involved in the tourism
industry to better understand the impacts. The impacts of the spill were spread across
various geographic areas, and the extent of the impacts on people and businesses were
shaped by various factors, such as the structure of an areas economy, clean-up activities,
the reparations process, and public perceptions. Tourism rebounded after the initial decline
and employment was relatively stable in most areas following DWH.

Analysis of the DWH spill impacts on the seafood industry

Some of the most severe and complex economic effects of the DWH spill were on the Gulf
of Mexico seafood industry. While there have been some prior analyses of parts of these
effects, one of our studies builds a framework for analyzing these economic effects in
aggregate. In particular, this study is creating a model that examines the effects of initial
shocks (such as the spill event) throughout the supply chains of various fisheries. In
particular, the model estimates the impacts of a change in fishermens revenues for a
certain species (such as shrimp or oysters) to harvesters, dealers, processors, distributors,
marketers, and restaurants. This study also entails a descriptive analysis of the DWH
impacts on the seafood industry, which provides context to the models results. While this
study does notand could notanswer all questions regarding the impacts of the spill, it
provides a useful framework for understanding the impacts to the seafood industry that
future researchers can build upon. BOEM can also use the results from this study to
analyze the effects of various potential future events on the seafood industry.
Recommendations
THE CLEANUP
Physical Methods

Part of the difficulty is that no two spills are alike. The

amount and type of oil (whether crude or refined) affects
how it spreads, and a spill in seawater spreads differently
than freshwater. Local environmental conditions also play
a huge role: currents, tides, weather, wind speed and
direction, air temperature, water temperature and
presence of ice all affect how the oil spreads and how
well cleanup workers can access the spill area. This variability makes it difficult to plan for
spills ahead of time.

Dispersants
Dispersants are like strong soaps, which cause the oil to break down and mix with water
more easily to speed up its natural biodegradation. As they combined, the oil became less
buoyant, forming additional underwater plumes while preventing the droplets from floating
to the surface and spreading to the coasts. But dispersants can also enter the food chain
and potentially harm wildlife.
Removing spilled oil from the environment is a difficult task. Because oil is hydrophobic
(doesn't mix with water), it floats to the surface when it spills into the ocean and forms large
slicks. These slicks can wreak havoc on coastal ecosystems and animals, so cleanup
workers use dispersantschemicals that break down the oil into smaller particles that mix
with water more easilyto prevent them from forming. Evaporation and bacteria can then
degrade these tiny droplets more quickly than if they were in a large slick, or waves can
wash them away from the spill site.

BACTERIA HELP CLEAN UP NATURALLY

Along with keeping the oil out of marshes, the dispersants helped to break down the oil into
smaller pieces. These smaller pieces are more easily eaten by oil-degrading bacteria that
live in the Gulf of Mexico and normally feed off of natural deep-sea oil seepsits like their
food was cut up for them. The bacteria were able to break down the oil into harmless
components, helping with the cleanup. However, they were not able to clean up all of the
oil, as some oil molecules are not as easily degraded. Their long-term presence in the
environment is a concern, especially if they are in coastal marshes or muds or interacting
with corals.