DEEPWATER

HORIZON

OIL SPILL

ACCIDENT
 What are Oil spills?

 An oil spill is the release of petroleum hydrocarbons

in various environments (especially marine) due to
human activities.

 Oil spills maybe due to release of oil from tankers,

offshore platforms, drilling rigs & wells.

 Some of the well known oil spills that occured in the

last few decades are mentioned below
1.Deepwater Horizon
2.Kuwaiti Oil Fires
3.Atlantic Empress
4.Gulfwar Oilspill
5.Amaco Cadiz
Deepwater horizon (An Insight)

• Deepwater Horizon was an oil rig located in the gulf of

Mexico. It was located about 41 miles offshore the coast
of Louisiana.
• It was an ultra deepwater semi-submersible offshore
drilling rig owned by trans ocean & was built in 2001 in
South Korea.

• It was the deepest oil rig in history of mankind with the

vertical depth of 35,050 feet.
 It was 396 ft by 256 ft and was capable of
operating in waters upto 8000 feet (2400 m) to
a maximum depth of 30,000 feet(9100 m)

 In 2002 the drill was upgraded with an e-drill

monitoring system through which a technical
personnel in Houston, Texas could receive real
time drilling information and could convey
troubleshooting information.
 Kicks and Blowouts
 Drilling on offshore well, involves creating a pathway
between the rig and oil & gas reservoirs beneath the
surface of the sea.
 A well bore is dug through layers of sub sea rock and
sediment, these layers can contain crude oil,trapped water
and natural gas under pressure.
 An unplanned flow of these well fluids into the wellbore
is known as a kick.

 Without proper management a kick can easily lead to an

uncontrolled release of oil and gas into the rig which is
known as a blowout.

 This mixture can easily find an ignition source in the rig

and can explode
Technical Safety Measures
 To prevent a kick drillers pump a dense slurry called drill
mud into the well, creating a barrier between the undersea
oil & gas and the piping that leads to the rig.
 If this fails the safety of the drilling crew depends on a
critical piece of equipment on the seabed called the
blowout preventer.
 It is a critical piece of equipment that is electrically and
hydraulically powered and is essential for the control of
the drill and for prevention of disaster in the case of an
emergency.
 It connected to the rig by a large diameter pipe which is
called a riser.
 If a kick occurs the blowout preventer is designed to
prevent the rise of flammable oil & gas through the riser
by sealing of the annular space.
 To do this the crew can manually close pipe rams and
donut shaped rubber devices known as annular
preventers.
 If those devices fail to work the last resort is a pair of
sharp metal blades which form a blind shear ram designed
to cut the drill pipe and seal the well.
The Accident
 On April 25th 2010 at 8.45 pm a kick occurred in the
well, oil & gas entered the well undetected, eventually
passing above the blowout preventer and traveling
upwards towards the deep water horizon.
 The drilling mud forced by oil & gas suddenly blew out
onto the rig. The workers responded by closing the upper
annular preventer in the blowout preventer.
 This did not seal the well as intended and oil & gas
continued to rise towards the rig.
 Next the crew closed the pipe ram. This successfully
closed the annular space and sealed the well. But this
proved to be only a temporary solution.
 Oil & gas that were already above the pipe ram continued
to flow towards the deep water horizon.
 At 9.49 pm the flammable hydrocarbons found an
ignition source and the first explosion shook the deep
water horizon.
 As the oil & gas escaped the riser onto the rig the pressure
dropped in the annular space above the pipe ram. At the
same time the pressure in the drill pipe climbed
substantially.
 The drill pipe was closed at the top. But the oil & gas
continued to flow in the reservoir. This large difference in
pressure likely caused the drill pipe to buckle.
 Thus the pipe bended inside the blowout preventer. The
buckling pushed sections of the drill pipe outside the
reach of the blind shear ram blades.
 AMF Deadman
 With the pipe buckled and the subsequent loss of electric
and hydraulic power from the drill likely activated an
automatic system on the blowout preventer known as the
AMF deadman.

 This closes the blind shear ram and cuts the drill pipe.

 It is designed to activate when the hydraulic power,

electric power and the communications from the rig is
lost i.e. it’s a savior in extreme conditions
 Lessons Learnt and Misconceptions
 It was not offshore drilling that led to accident but rather fact
of too cozy relationship between regulators from U.S.
Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service
(MMS) & owners & operators of Deepwater Horizon rig led
to woefully inadequate regulatory oversight

 There was poor coordination & inadequate lines of

responsibility among BP, Transocean, and Haliburton
employees. Additionally, there was no contingency planning
by the companies or the U.S. Coast Guard on what to do in the
event of an emergency—a grave shortcoming when you are
drilling at depths with little past experience.
 All the safety measure were planned properly but due to the
lack of management and maintenance they were not executed
properly due to which the incident took place.

 It is clear there was gross negligence on the part of BP and

partners who placed short-term profits against technically
sound drilling practices, with untold damage in public trust of
entire petroleum industry on which world’s future lies.
Environmental Effect of Accident
 The major impact was on the marine wildlife . Eight US
national parks were directly affected and more than 400
species living in the gulf of mexico and marshal islands
were threatened.
 The area of the spill included 8332 species ,of which
1200 were those of fishes and 200 were those of birds .

 The actual number of mammal deaths are estimated to be

50 times more than the number of recovered carcasses.
 Impact on Sea Birds
 Two recent studies—one focused on coastal bird
mortality and the other focused on offshore bird
mortality—indicate that approximately 1 million seabirds
were killed as a result of the oil spill.
 Coastal bird mortality (those killed within 25 miles of shore)
was estimated by two separate models to be between 600,000
and 800,000 birds.
 . Scientists estimated that 32 percent of the northern Gulf
population of laughing gull was killed along with 13 percent
of the royal tern population, 8 percent of the northern gannet,
and 12 percent of the brown pelican population
 scientists estimate between 36,000 and 670,000 birds died
offshore as a result of the spill, with the most likely number
near 200,000 .
 Impact on Marine Mammals
 As of April 2011, officially 170 marine mammals were
injured or killed as a direct result of the BP oil disaster.
(This number reflects the found animals that can be
accounted for)
 However, scientists surmise that the carcasses recovered after
the Deepwater Horizon disaster represent only 2 percent of
spill related marine mammal deaths, and have suggested that
given no additional information, the true death toll could be 50
times higher, putting the death toll of marine mammals closer
to 5,000.
 The BP disaster is acknowledged as the likely cause of a
Unusual Mortality Event for dolphins and whales in the
northern Gulf of Mexico.
 Since February 2010, nearly 1,400 dolphin and whale
strandings February 2010, nearly 1,400 dolphin and whale
strandings February 2010, nearly 1,400 dolphin and whale
strandings .
 Impact on Fishes
 According to NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric
Administration), scientists have demonstrated, through both
field and laboratory studies, a number of sub-lethal impacts of
oil exposure, including the following:

 Disrupted growth, development, and reproduction

 Tissue damage

 Altered cardiac development and function;

 Disrupted immune system

 Biochemical and cellular alterations

 Changes in swimming ability and other

behaviors that can adversely affect an
organism’s viability in the natural environment
Effect on Beaches
 The oil from the disaster affected between 622 and 1300
miles of the United States coastline around the Gulf of
Mexico and has acutely catalyzed the erosion of land due
to the oil having led to the death of most of the
marsh vegetation.

 The deposition of trace minerals and metals on the

beaches such as mercury and arsenic deposited by the oil
may cause harm to both wildlife and humans.
 Nearly all of the 21 species of dolphins and whales that
live in the northern Gulf have demonstrable,
quantifiable injuries . There numbers declined by half
and there future existence is still doubted.
 Scientists estimate as many as 1,67,000 sea turtles of
all ages were killed during the disaster and are
concerned about the species congregate sea turtles who
feed in Luisiana coast which is fully oiled.
 The federal study confirmed atleast 770 sq miles
around wellhead got affected, separate analysis
determined atleast 1,200 sq miles got affected. Both
studies tell a significant amount of oil was likely
deposited on the ocean floor outside the areas of
known damage.
 Effect on Coastal Habitats
 In Louisiana, erosion rates approximately doubled
along roughly 100 miles of shoreline. The effect
lasted for at least three years. Louisiana already had
one of the highest rates of wetlands erosion, even
before the disaster.

 The following image gives an idea of the wide spread

region that this accident affected
 Economic Effects
 This incident affected the life cycles of most of
the commercial fish species.
 This also had an impact on the reproductive
success of the adults.
 This hindered the growth of the fishing
revenues to a great extent.
 The following chart shows the projected losses
of fishing revenue in 3 years after the accident.
 Cleanup Efforts
 To clean oil from the open water, 1.8 mn gallons
of dispersants that emulsified the oil, allowing easier
metabolism by bacteria were pumped into the leak and
applied aerially to the slick. Booms to corral portions of
the slick were deployed, and the contained oil was
burned. As oil began to contaminate lands it was
manually removed. It was tough to clean marshes
and estuaries, where the topography was knit together
by delicate plant life. By June, oil and tar balls made
landfall on beaches. An estimated 1100 miles of
shoreline were polluted.
 Cleanup was coordinated by the National response
team a group of government agencies headed by the
U.S. Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection
Agency. BP, Transocean, and several other
companies held liable for costs. Coast Guard cleanup
patrols ultimately drew to a close in Alabama,
Florida, and Mississippi in June 2013 and in
Louisiana in April 2014.
Some Interesting Stats !!!
 11:Workers died during explosion on Rig and 17
were injured

 4.9 million: Barrels of oil (205.8 million gallons)

leaked from the Deepwater Horizon well, about half the
amount of crude oil the U.S. imports per day

 62,000: Barrels leaking per day when the wellhead first

broke, roughly the amount of oil consumed in Delaware
each day

 53,000: Barrels leaking per day when the well was capped
on July 15, roughly the amount of oil consumed in Rhode
Island each day
 397.7 million: Dollars' worth of the oil spilled at current
market prices ($81.17 per barrel)

 665: Miles of coastline contaminated by oil

 16.5 million: Gallons of oil chemically dispersed by

National Incident Command

 32.9 million: Gallons of oil naturally dispersed, which

means it has broken into droplets smaller than the
diameter of a human hair
• 35 million: Gallons directly recovered from the
wellhead into ships through the riser pipe and top-hat
systems

•11.4 million: Gallons of oil has been removed by a

series of 411 controlled burns

•53.5 million: Gallons of oil still remaining in the water

or washed ashore

•95.6 million: Potential gallons of gasoline leaked from

the wellhead (approximately 19.5 gallons of gas can be
derived from one barrel of oil). That's about one-fourth
of daily consumption in the United States.
• 51.5 million: Gallons of oil evaporated or dissolved. This
differs from natural dispersion because instead of breaking
down into small droplets, the oil breaks apart molecularly
and dissolves into the water.

• 6.2 million: Gallons of oil skimmed off the Gulf by the

more than 830 skimming vessels used in the response

• 28,900: Total number of personnel currently deployed in

response to the spill. On July 8, 47,000 people had been
deployed.

• 57,539: Square miles of Gulf waters that remain closed to

fishing
• 69,068: Times you could drive a Hummer H3 (18
mpg highway) around the Earth

• 311: Olympic-size swimming pools that could be

filled with the oil that leaked from Deepwater
Horizon

• 13,208: Homes that could have been heated for

one year (approximately 2 gallons of heating oil
are produced from one barrel, with an average
American household using 742

• 184,181: Times you could drive a Toyota Prius

(48 mpg highway) around the Earth at the equator
using the lost oil
VIEW OF THE WATER AROUND RIG AFTER A MASSIVE
FLOW OF OIL FOR CONSTANT 87 DAYS FROM THE RIG
THANK YOU