Quote:

"Where oil is first found is in the minds of men"
Wallace Pratt (1885-1981)



Sunday 1 May 2011

BP Oil Spill





This oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico on the 20th of April 2010 and had finally concluded on the 15th of July 2010. There was a spill that was coming from the sea-floor which caused an explosion. This explosion killed 11 workers and had caused 17 other injuries. The oil had ceased to leak because they had finally capped the wellhead. In the end, it is estimated that there had been 4.9 million barrels (780,000 m3) of crude oil leaked.  This is the largest accidental oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.  This spill caused extreme damage to the marine wildlife in the Gulf, and greatly affected fishing and tourism.  Even in November, parts of the Gulf were closed for shrimp fishing because there were balls of tar caught in the nets. In January 2011, there were still reports of oil sheen, tar balls, and oil onshore. The U.S government held BP accountable for the oil spill, gave them the clean up charges and other costs.  

1 comment:

  1. I heard a lot about this on the news. What are the long term affects of this spill? Will it only affect marine life, or humans too?

    ReplyDelete