BP OIL DISASTER

By Michelle Davis

Things were going just fine……

And then the explosion•April 20th 2010- Rig explosion

•11 men died that day. 17 injured.

•Methane gas under high pressure leaked up and exploded.

• April 22nd– An oil slick spreading around the area of the explosion is the first sign to authorities that there is an OIL LEAK.

* Initial evaluation attributed the cause to the failure of the “blow out preventer” which sits atop the well.

Monday, April 26 Search-and-rescue operations have been suspended with 11 people still missing. ----U.S. Coast Guard underwater cameras and robots discover two leaks that are dumping an estimated 1,000 barrels of oil per day.

Tuesday, April 27 -The US departments of interior and homeland security announce plans for a joint investigation of the explosion and fire.

Wednesday, April 28 Experts discover that the leak is so bad, it could take months to stop U.S. Coast Guard sets the oil slick on fire, releasing a huge plume into the sky.

Thursday, April 29- President Obama’s first public comments are that he pledges "every single available resource", including the US military, to contain the spreading spill. --also says BP is responsible for the cleanup.

Louisiana declares a state of emergency.

Friday April 30th- BP chairman Tony Hayward says the company will take full responsibility for the spill, paying for all legitimate claims and the cost for the

cleanup.

---In the first days following the blast…

*May 1st– Sky Truth (small non-profit group) analyzed radar and satellite imagery and estimated that the oil was leaking much faster than the original official estimates. The initial figure was 1,000 barrels/day, Then 5000, then today (May 1st)a revised estimate brings it to 25,000 barrels/day!.....

(it ended up to be 63,000. a day at first then slows down to 53,000)

• May 2nd- US officials close areas affected by the spill to fishing for an initial• period of 10 days. • Obama visits the Gulf coast…. to see cleanup efforts first hand. BP starts to drill a relief well ….alongside the failed well. An additional 30 vessels and 1,000 responders are deployed to the Gulf

coast.

*May 8th- Containment dome fails…………..over next several weeks Multiple attempts by various entities all take their shot at a solution including,

but not limited to, the use of booms to soak up oil, vessels to drag surface, hay barriers along shorelines, and laborers to physically clean the shorelines.

* May 30th- Tony Hayward causes outrage after telling reporters, "There's no one who wants this over more than I do. “I would like my life back.“

…Time line

It took BP 87 days to design, build and deploy a 75-ton cap to try and stop the flow. (that failed too)

UMMMMMM,…. lets try……this…..?

As of June 21, 2010, the area they closed to fishing encompassed 86,985 square miles, or about 36% of Gulf of Mexico.

* June 1st- Just as BP denies existence of underwater oil plumes, Scientists find many, and one is 22 miles long, 6 miles wide and 1000 feet deep.

* July 12- BP had reported applying 1,070,000 US gallons of “Corexit” a dispersant on the surface and 721,000 US gallons underwater. This was the first ever subsea injection of dispersant directly into oil at the source.

* August 4 th- BP says the 'static kill' attempt (pumping of mud) to stop the oil leak has been successful, though more mud may still have to be pumped into the well to close it permanently.

* September 16th- The relief well they drilled intersected the blown-out well and crews began pumping in the cement.

* September 19th-- BP effectively killed the well.

* Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen declared BP's well was "effectively dead.”

Time line cont……(6 weeks after explosion)

Wildlife and environmental groups accused BP of holding back information about the extent and impact of the growing slick.

President of National Wildlife Federation, Larry Schweiger, said BP had failed to disclose results from the tests of chemical dispersants it used on the

spill, and that BP had withheld the video showing the true magnitude of the leak.

On May,19 - BP established a live feed, popularly known as “Spill-cam,” only AFTER

Congress accused the company of withholding data from the ocean floor

Journalists attempting to document the impact of the oil spill were repeatedly refused access to public areas and photojournalists were prevented from flying over areas of the gulf to their attempt to document the scope of the disaster.

Scientists also complained about being prevented access to information controlled by BP and government sources.

On June 30, the Coast Guard put new restrictions in place across the Gulf Coast that prevented ships from coming within 66 ft of operations,

(related to safety issues)

Cover up?- Holding back information

Quick Poll-----You choose…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LklqCy_bpuY&feature=player_embedded

A seemingly sincere attempt to make things right?

A phony attempt to improve their image?

1 October- Bob Dudley takes over as chief executive of BP following the departure of Tony Hayward.

7 October- White House report revealed that government scientists were blocked by Obama administration from reporting the full extent of BP oil spill in the early stages.?

10 October-- BP announces that its external safety ombudsman, (put in place after the fatal explosion at its Texas City refinery in 2005) will stop taking complaints after June 2011.

23 October -- has been reported that miles-long stretches of weathered oil had been sighted in West Bay TX.

11 November - Tony Hayward says says when oil spill hit, BP was forced to make up disaster response as it went along and

“Public saw us as fumbling and incompetent.”

The latest….not the greatest

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/gulf-oil-spill-six-months-later-matt-gutman-bp-deepwater-horizon-explosion-11931428

• (video)end of October, Scientists who were aboard two research vessels (Alvin)studying the spill's impact on sea life announced they had found

substantial amounts of oil on the seafloor, contradicting statements by federal officials that the oil had largely disappeared.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/submarine-scours-bottom-gulf-12302919

** The Government estimates that 200 million gallons of crude oil was spilled.** BP is challenging that estimate - insisting it's half that.

Sad.. Sad truth…..

BP blamed the faulty cement job as one of the main factors contributing to the accident and claimed Halliburton was at fault.

Halliburton has said that it tested and used a proper cement formula and said that

BP’s flawed well design and poor operations caused the disaster

Ultimately, the Government has named BP as the party responsible for all clean up costs and other damages.

FINGER POINTING

The Center for Biological Diversity, a non-profit organization,

Gave Tony Hayward its 2010 Rubber Dodo Award.

The award recognizes the person who the group says,

"has done the most to drive endangered species extinct."

AND… History repeats itself………..

March 24, 1989,the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground at

Bligh Reef. The vessel spilled 10.8 million gallons of Alaskan crude oil into Prince William Sound, causing the largest oil spill in North American history. (up until that date)

*******But wait----It happens again

Separation of Corporation and State: The 28th Amendment

Dr. Riki Ott, author of Not One Drop: Presents in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Amendment 28

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4g29gS2KUo

What should Tony Hayward have done?

What could others have done (Govt, locals, )

What should be going on now? Do you think BP with follow up and keep their promises to gulf?

How do you feel about the implementation of an

Amendment 28 ?

Public relations lessons………………..(what not to do)…..