Deepwater Horizon Disaster

On April 20, 2010, an incident was to take place 49 miles off the Louisiana coast at the Macondo Prospect location in the Gulf of Mexico that would potentially change the future of offshore oil drilling. On that day, 11 men tragically lost their lives when the 33,000 ton Deepwater Horizon rig, owned by Transocean Ltd. but leased by the multinational oil and gas firm BP PLC, exploded. The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig had nearly completed its work of sealing the well for a production rig to begin pumping the oil. As a result of the explosion, millions of barrels of oil were released into the Gulf of Mexico, leading to widespread environmental harm and devastation to the shoreline communities. The negative impacts of the ...