WHAT HAPPENED
A mixture of oil and gas seeps from the well onto the drilling floor
Once the natural gas cracked through the concrete core, gas travelled up the rig
Transocean owned to Rig, was leased to BP Exploration and Production Inc. BP made decision save time and money by skipping protocols and substituting materials used to cap the well.
The Macondo well was over 5,000 feet below the surface of the ocean. In an Engineering Case Study published by SunCam (Coco, 2016) outlines that a below the surface was a series of pressurized oil and gas reservoirs located another 13,360 feet below the ocean/sea bed.
126 workers were safely evacuated
17 injured
11 men dead as a direct result of the explosion
22nd April 2010 15.04 – Abnormally high pressures on the ‘kill line’ - (line uses drilling fluid to control pressure to the well’ PSI 1,350 was trapped in the kill line as it was not bled off
DEEP WATER HORIZON OIL DISASTER 2010
Deep Water Horizon Rig is Engulfed in Flames
Kill switch is not working
Drilling mud/ fluid injected to counteract the upward pressure of oil and natural gas
22nd April 2010 Macondo well suffered a catastrophic blowout as a result of a surge of natural gas blasting though the concrete core that had been recently installed as a result of high pressure
A subcontractor engineer from sunsea, attempts to activate the ‘kill switch’
Emergency systems are not activated
Gas sensors go out due to the blowout
AFTERMATH
22nd April 2010 – Capsized rig caused the riser (pipeline) to rupture
- As a result, drilling fluid/mud and oil began to discharge into the Gulf of Mexico
30th April 2010 – Estimates are made to the sheer capacity of oil being dispersed this leaps from 42,000 gallons a day to 210,000
22nd April 2010 10.22 – Early morning, Deep water Horizon capsized and sank
1st July 2010 – Spill passes the 140 million gallon mark, making Deep Water Horizon oil disaster the worst Spill in the Gulf’s history.
15th July 2010 – A successful cap has been placed on the Macondo Well to stop the Oil Spill.
29th May 2010 – Spill Estimates revise calculations, oil spill are found to be as many as 1 million gallons a day
8th May 2010 – First tar balls wash ashore
19th September 2010 – The Macondo well is plugged for good. Cement is pumped to block the hole.
1st June 2010 – Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney General launch a criminal investigation into the oil spill
21st April 2010 - Crew members on the rig pumped cement solution to the bottom of the borehole - to prevent oil leaking out
22nd April 2010 00.36 - Earlier on in the day, crew members were conducting tests to check that it had properly sealed