ABSTRACT

The Deepwater Horizon Disaster (also referred to as the BP oil spill, the BP oil disaster, the Gulf
of Mexico oil spill, and the Macondo blowout) began on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico
on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. Following the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater
Horizon semi-submersible rig that cost about 560 million dollars which is owned by Transocean.
The rig that came with a long list of maintenance issues and it was reported that 390 repairs that
needed immediate attention and would require more than 3,500 hours of labor to fix cause a seafloor oil gusher flowed for 87 days, until it was capped on July 15, 2010. It is considered the
largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. After several failed
efforts to contain the flow, the well was declared sealed on September 19, 2010. Reports in early
2012 indicated the well site was still leaking.

FINDINGS
1. Poor cementing of the well
The narrow margins between pore pressure and fracture gradient established a
challenging environment for sealing the well. The approach chosen was to use a longstring production casing (9 7 inches) extending from the seafloor to the bottom of the
well, cemented in place with a low-density, foamed cement slurry completed by
Haliburtons Cementing. During the cementing operation, difficulties were encountered,
including those associated with converting (closing) check valves on the float collar near
the bottom of the casing at 18,115 feet.
2. Cement bond log was not conducted
After a discussion with the Macondo well contractors, BP concluded that a cement bond
log was not required. BP informed the Schlumberger crew that no wireline cased hole
services would be requested. Nonetheless, the drilling team determined mistakenly that
the cementing operation had been completed successfully and proceeded to conduct a
negative pressure test to establish the integrity of the cemented production casing.

3. Miss understanding of pressure test result

Multiple negative pressure tests were made, all of which indicated inconclusive and
confusing results. However, the team mistakenly determined that the negative pressure
test had been conducted successfully and proceeded to abandon the well temporarily by
displacing drilling mud with seawater, recovering the mud, and discharging overboard the
spacer fluid that had been used in previous operations. Various anomalies were noted
during this process on April 20.
4. Failure to control the accident
At approximately 21:40 on 20 April, mud was observed flowing onto the rig floor and
well control actions were initiated, diverting flow to the mudgas separator and activating
the upper annular and upper pipe rams on the blowout preventer (BOP). The procedures
taken did not reestablish control over the well. Flammable gas alarms on the Deepwater
Horizon sounded at approximately 21:47, followed by two explosions at approximately
21:49.
DISCUSSION
The cause of the accident can be presented by using a Swiss Cheese Theory. Each finding
represent a hole in swiss cheese and a row of findings led towards the accident. The explosions
and resulting fire led to the death of 11 workers and serious injuries to 16 others. The Deepwater
Horizon rig sank roughly 36 hours later. Nearly 5 million barrels of oil were released into the
Gulf of Mexico. Over 6,800 dead animals collected leading to decreasing of oxygen level. It is
estimated to be 2.3-billion-dollar potential cost of tourism industry over three years and loss of
2.5 billion dollars due to closed fishing ports.

CONCLUSION
The accident is caused by series of unsafe behavior and unsafe acts. Those are poor cementing of
the well, cement bond log was not conducted, miss understanding of pressure test and failure to
control the accident. It is summarized to be 11 dead workers and 16 workers was injured.

REFERENCE
1. Bergin, Tom (17 June 2008). "BP's Thunder Horse starts oil and gas production". Reuters,
29 May 2009.
2. Brenner, Noah; Guegel, Anthony; Watts, Rob; Pitt, Anthea (29 April 2010). "Horizon
crew tried to activate BOP". NHST Media Group, 4 June 2010.
3. Richard Pendlebury (18 June 2010). "Daily Mail special investigation article: Why is BP
taking ALL the blame?". Dailymail.co.uk. 29 April 2012.
4. Robertson, Cambell; Robbins, Liz (22 April 2010). "Oil Rig Sinks in the Gulf of
Mexico". The New York Times. 22 April 2010.
5. Washburn, Mark (14 May 2010). "A huff and boom ended Deepwater Horizon's good
luck". The McClatchy Company, 18 June 2010.

APENDICES

Figure 1: Swiss Cheese model contributing to the accident

Figure 2: Area involved in the oil spill