BP Oil Spill.

Out in the Gulf of Mexico there are a lot of oil rigs, owned by big companies like BP and operated by other companies, like Transocean liners. On the 20th of April, 2010 an oil rig blew up, taking 11 lives and scarring many more people who were on the rig at the time. This rig was the deepest oil drill created; it was digging 4,000 metres below the sea floor. This rig had a successful history, oil rigs were dangerous things, but this one had operated safely for 7 years. So why did it blow up?
There are many reasons flying around, there is a lot of finger pointing going on, every company connected to the rig is trying to shift the blame. One reason was the ‘blow out preventer’ failing. Blow out preventers, or BOP’s are invaluable to an oil rig, there function is to stop the build up of pressure from the oil well exploding onto the rig. BP had warning that the BOP was faulty but pressed on with work because an oil rig costs $500,000 a day to run.
Another reason was that a new well was just put in use, and when creating a new well concrete must be poured down it, to seal the edge of the pipe, 21 braces must also be used to support the pipe from pressure. BP didn’t wait for the concrete to set properly, and they only used 6 braces. These were risks that saved them money in the short term.
Unfortunately for BP, but quite foreseeable, the oil rig blew, pumping millions of litres of oil into the ocean every day for many months. The Gulf is home to many unique animal species that have only just recovered from the last oil spill, now they are quite possibly facing extinction again.

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