[367] David Rainey, BP's former vice-president for exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, was charged with obstructing Congress by misrepresenting the rate that oil was flowing out of the well. [176] The Coast Guard and BP denied having a policy of restricting journalists; they noted that members of the media had been embedded with the authorities and allowed to cover response efforts since the beginning of the effort, with more than 400 embeds aboard boats and aircraft to date. [355], The trial's first phase was to determine the liability of BP, Transocean, Halliburton, and other companies, and if they acted with gross negligence and willful misconduct. API announced the creation of an offshore safety institute, separate from API's lobbying operation. [230][231], On 12 April 2016, a research team reported that 88 percent of about 360 baby or stillborn dolphins within the spill area "had abnormal or under-developed lungs", compared to 15 percent in other areas. [169], On 18 May 2010, BP was designated the lead "Responsible Party" under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which meant that BP had operational authority in coordinating the response. "[281] Some observers suggested that the Obama administration was being overly aggressive in its criticisms, which some BP investors saw as an attempt to deflect criticism of his own handling of the crisis. [305][306] The USCG actively requested skimming boats and equipment from several countries.[307]. Typically such large amounts are sprayed over the open ocean from an airplane or helicopter. [315], The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling released a final report on 5 January 2011. Because the effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill were so widespread, assessment teams are taking an ecosystem approach to restoring the Gulf ecosystem. The ever-growing increase in deep-sea oil explorations in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) has been raising concerns with regard to future oil spills. . [59][109] In addition, a white, milky substance was observed seeping from the wreckage. [249], Two years after the spill, a study initiated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found biomarkers matching the oil from the spill in the bodies of cleanup workers. Many large-scale skimmers exceeded the limit. "[309] The investigation by United States Attorney General Eric Holder was announced on 1 June 2010. 97% of payments were made to claimants in the Gulf States. The British Petroleum oil spill (BP oil spill), also known as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, is the largest oil spill in the history of the petroleum production industry [11] . [18][19], Numerous investigations explored the causes of the explosion and record-setting spill. [52] In late June, oil reached Gulf Park Estates, its first appearance in Mississippi. [59], On 25 July 2013, Halliburton pleaded guilty to destruction of critical evidence after the oil spill and said it would pay the maximum allowable fine of $200,000 and will be subject to three years of probation. [146], Underwater injection of Corexit into the leak may have created the oil plumes which were discovered below the surface. [62] Estimates of the residual ranged from a 2010 NOAA report that claimed about half of the oil remained below the surface to independent estimates of up to 75%. It was largely settled when a Federal District judge approved the largest environmental damage settlement in United States history $20.8 billion on April 4, 2016. A limitation of their methodology was that some VOCs may have already evaporated from the oil before they began their investigation. [202] According to J. Christopher Haney, Harold Geiger, and Jeffrey Short, three researchers with extensive experience in environmental monitoring and post-spill mortality assessments, over one million coastal birds died as a direct result of the Deepwater Horizon spill. [316][317] The panel found that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean had attempted to work more cheaply and thus helped to trigger the explosion and ensuing leakage. Calling the vicinity of the spill "one of the most productive ocean ecosystems in the world", the study found that even at very low concentrations "PAH cardiotoxicity was potentially a common form of injury among a broad range of species in the vicinity of the oil. Record criminal fines paid by BP in 2012 half went directly to aid the Gulf. [293] In June 2018, the executive order establishing the National Ocean Council was revoked by then-U.S. president Donald Trump in an effort to roll back bureaucracy and benefit "ocean industries [that] employ millions of Americans". [242], Workers reported that they were not allowed to use respirators, and that their jobs were threatened if they did. A bioremediation expert says extreme caution must be used in cleaning up the fragile Gulf Coast ecosystem in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS This was to cover all offshore cleanup activities, BP later requested a second NIOSH investigation of onshore cleanup operations. British pension fund managers (who have large holdings of BP shares and rely upon its dividends) accepted that while BP had to pay compensation for the spill and the environmental damage, they argued that the cost to the company's market value from President Obama's criticism was far outweighing the direct clean-up costs. Improving Your Non-Technical Skills as a Scientist. [298][299] On 26 July 2010, it was announced that CEO Tony Hayward was to resign and would be replaced by Bob Dudley, who is an American citizen and previously worked for Amoco. [141] On 24 May, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson ordered EPA to conduct its own evaluation of alternatives and ordered BP to reduce dispersant use by 75%. "[304], The U.S. government rejected offers of cleanup help from Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations. "[297] In June, BP launched a PR campaign and successfully bid for several search terms related to the spill on Google and other search engines so that the first sponsored search result linked directly to the company's website. [126] Over 400sorties were flown to release the product. [58] As of December2012[update], 339mi (546km) of coastline remain subject to evaluation and/or cleanup operations. [172], The FAA denied that BP employees or contractors made decisions on flights and access, saying those decisions were made by the FAA and Coast Guard. Two weeks after the wellhead was capped on 15 July 2010, the surface oil appeared to have dissipated, while an unknown amount of subsurface oil remained. You may remember the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that happened in 2010, where 3.19 million barrels of oil spilled off the Gulf of Mexico. [60], Concerns were raised about the appearance of underwater, horizontally extended plumes of dissolved oil. [193], A 2014 study of the effects of the oil spill on bluefin tuna funded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Stanford University, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium and published in the journal Science, found that the toxins from oil spills can cause irregular heartbeats leading to cardiac arrest. (2001). BP issued a statement strongly disagreeing with the finding, and saying the court's decision would be appealed. [270] The moratorium suspended work on 33rigs,[270] and a group of affected companies formed the Back to Work Coalition. As oil and gas, shipping, and tourism activities increase, the possibilities of an oil spill also increase. [300][301], Hayward's involvement in Deepwater Horizon has left him a highly controversial public figure. [170][171], The first video images were released on 12 May, and further video images were released by members of Congress who had been given access to them by BP. [338] On 13 January 2013, Judge Barbier approved a medical-benefits portion of BP's proposed $7.8billion partial settlement. The court ruled that BP hadn't explained "how this court or the district court should identify or even discern the existence of 'claimants that have suffered no cognizable injury. [28][361], On 2 July 2015, BP, the U.S. Justice Department and five gulf states announced that the company agreed to pay a record settlement of $18.7billion. [256][257] The Gulf of Mexico commercial fishing industry was estimated to have lost $247million as a result of postspill fisheries closures. By 26 May 2010, over 130 lawsuits relating to the spill had been filed[333] against one or more of BP, Transocean, Cameron International Corporation, and Halliburton Energy Services,[334] although it was considered likely by observers that these would be combined into one court as a multidistrict litigation. Bacteria that had adapted to consuming naturally occurring gas and oil seeping from the seabed were thought to have consumed a portion of it. It also included economic damage claims submitted by the five Gulf states and their local governments. [278], On 30 April, President Obama dispatched the Secretaries of the Department of Interior and Homeland Security, as well as the EPA Administrator and NOAA to the Gulf Coast to assess the disaster. In May 2013, he was honored as a "distinguished leader" by the University of Birmingham, but his award ceremony was stopped on multiple occasions by jeers and walk-outs and the focus of a protest from People & Planet members. The time an ecosystem takes to recover from an oil spill depends on its size. [319][321] It criticized BP for its failure to run a cement bond log test. For example, genes for hydrocarbon degradation (ex: alkB) are found in uncontaminated samples from the Gulf of Mexico more commonly than in other regions around the world. Only about 800,000 barrels had been captured. [81] The United States government's estimates suggested the cap and other equipment were capturing less than half of the leaking oil. [116], Dispersants are said to facilitate the digestion of the oil by microbes. BioWorld Hydrocarbon Treatment was added to weathered oil from the Gulf. "[110], In January 2013, BP said that they were continuing to investigate possible sources of the oil sheen. Dispersants, Bacteria and Illness in the Gulf, "West Siberian research institute to help clean up Deepwater Horizon spill", BP withholds oil spill facts and government lets it, White House and BP legal wrangling: more damage to collaborative work in disaster response, "Deepwater Horizon NOTAM Overview: Air Traffic Organization, System Operations, Security", "Is BP Stopping Journalists from Observing the Oil Slick? [105], In October 2012, BP reported that they had found and plugged leaking oil from the failed containment dome, now abandoned about 1,500ft (460m) from the main well. [2] BP conducted its internal investigation. [198][212][213] By 2013, over 650 dolphins had been found stranded in the oil spill area, a four-fold increase over the historical average. ", "Limits on access to oiled waters, coast frustrates journalists", "It's BP's Oil': Running the Corporate Blockade at Louisiana's Crude-Covered Beaches, "BP's Photo Blockade of the Gulf Oil Spill: Photographers Say BP and Government Officials Are Preventing Them from Documenting the Impact of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster", "Dying, dead marine wildlife paint dark, morbid picture of Gulf Coast following oil spill". Post-oil spill samples on the other hand, contain mostly oil-degrading organisms with drastic decrease in diversity. The conclusion was that BP was partly to blame, as was Transocean, which owned the rig. The settlement ended all civil and criminal penalty claims against the owners and operators of the rig BP, Anadarko, TransOcean and Halliburton under the Clean Water Act and the Oil Pollution Act. [330] An auditor BDO Consulting found that 7,300 claimants were wrongly denied or underpaid. [149], In late 2012, a study from Georgia Tech and Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes in Environmental Pollution journal reported that Corexit used during the BP oil spill had increased the toxicity of the oil by 52 times. BP also agreed to four years of government monitoring of its safety practices and ethics, and the Environmental Protection Agency announced that BP would be temporarily banned from new contracts with the United States government. [229], A 2015 study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, published in PLOS ONE, links the sharp increase in dolphin deaths to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. [224][225], In 2013, researchers found that oil on the bottom of the seafloor did not seem to be degrading,[226] and observed a phenomenon called a "dirty blizzard": oil in the water column began clumping around suspended sediments, and falling to the ocean floor in an "underwater rain of oily particles." Based on 16S rRNA gene community analysis, the most prominent group of hydrocarbon degraders detected at contaminated sites were from the genus Pseudomonas [9]. The U.S. State Department listed 70 assistance offers from 23 countries, all being initially declined, but later, 8 had been accepted. [56] In October, weathered oil reached Texas. Responding to the report, Transocean and Halliburton placed all blame on BP. [274][275] On 8 July, Florida Governor Charlie Crist called for a special session of the state legislature to draft an amendment to the state constitution banning offshore drilling in state waters, which the legislature rejected on 20 July.[276][277]. [116] EPA regulations prohibited skimmers that left more than 15 parts per million (ppm) of oil in the water. Oil sheencould be seen on the surface of the water covering up to 180 000km2 [3] . The goal of NRDA is to restore natural resources and compensate the public for lost recreational use., we evaluated the type and amount of restoration needed in order to return the Gulf to the condition it would have been in before the spill and to compensate the public for the natural resource services that were injured or lost. This webpage is limited to EPAs enforcement-related activities only, and does not cover all legal or other actions against BP Exploration & Production and other parties for the spill, such as private party/class action settlements for medical claims and economic damages, or other actions against those responsible for the spill. These studies also showed that the bodies of former spill cleanup workers carry biomarkers of "many chemicals contained in the oil". [16] In April 2013, it was reported that dolphins and other marine life continued to die in record numbers with infant dolphins dying at six times the normal rate. The Deepwater Horizon spill resulted in the largest natural resource damage assessment ever undertaken. The Macondo well is found roughly 41mi (66km) off the Louisiana coast. A Berkeley Lab bioremediation expert says extreme caution must be used in cleaning up the fragile Gulf Coast ecosystem in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. "[341], On 31 August 2012, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed papers in federal court in New Orleans blaming BP for the Gulf oil spill, describing the spill as an example of "gross negligence and willful misconduct." On April 4, 2016, the court approved a settlement with BP for natural resource injuries stemming from the spill. Not only was BP required to pay both criminal and civil court ordered penalties of more than $20.8 billion, they funded $500 million in additional research in 2010. BP set up its own private claims program unilaterally in 2010. This included its own estimate of both the remaining business economic loss claims and the claims of businesses that opted out of the private settlement agreement, as well as the $20.8 billion settlement with the federal government and five states. The oil well was capped three months later, after 24/7 news coverage. We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. These numbers, coupled with the National Audubon Society scientists' observations of bird colonies and bird mortality well after the acute phase, have led scientists to conclude that more than one million birds ultimately succumbed to the lethal effects of the Gulf oil spill. NWF senior scientist Doug Inkley notes that the marine death rates are unprecedented and occurring high in the food chain, strongly suggesting there is "something amiss with the Gulf ecosystem". Two main types of affected coast were sandy beaches and marshes. The United States Government report, published in September 2011, pointed to defective cement on the well, faulting mostly BP, but also rig operator Transocean and contractor Halliburton. [33][34] BP was the operator and principal developer of the Macondo Prospect with a 65% share, while 25% was owned by Anadarko Petroleum, and 10% by MOEX Offshore 2007, a unit of Mitsui.[35]. The Deepwater Horizon criminal case, also prosecuted under the Clean Water Act, resulted in the largest criminal penalty with a single entity in U.S. history. [215] [356][357] The second phase scheduled in September 2013 focused on the flow rate of the oil and the third phase scheduled in 2014 was to consider damages. Gas-station owners divided", "Despite BP oil spill, Louisiana still loves Big Oil", "FB10-055: BP Oil Spill: NOAA Modifies Commercial and Recreational Fishing Closure in the Oil-Affected Portions of the Gulf of Mexico", "Deepwater Horizon/BP Oil Spill: Size and Percent Coverage of Fishing Area Closures Due to BP Oil Spill". [203] Damage to the ocean floor especially endangered the Louisiana pancake batfish whose range is entirely contained within the spill-affected area. Once released, the natural gas traveled up a riser to the platform of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that was over the well, where it ignited, killing 11 workers and injuring 17. "[295] Later, he drew an outpouring of criticism when he said that the spill was a disruption to Gulf Coast residents and himself adding, "You know, I'd like my life back. It was based on our thorough assessment of impacts to the Gulf's natural resources and the services they provide. What caused the Deepwater Horizon oil spill? 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