DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL SPILL APRIL –JULY 2010 Muhammed Fatih Altınok Zekeriya Akyıldız Halil Cihan Helvacıoğlu Ömer Burak Kınay

 Largest oil spill ever recorded  Gulf of Mexico – Macondo Well  Explosion and sinking of BP’s oil rig  Explosion caused 11 deaths  94 survivors from rig crew  Serious environmental problems arised

 9-year-old  Mobile, Floating  Able to drill up to 3000m depth  Owned by Transocean, Leased to BP  High-pressure methane gas, ignited & exploded  Crew rescued by lifeboats and helicopters  Rig sank in 22 April 2010

Before After

 Blow-out preventer failure  Misreading pressure data by managers – defective cement job  Mistakes in control routines  Failure to observe and respond to critical indicators  Risky cost cutting decisions not noticed by government regulators

 Crew Rescue Operations U.S. Coast guards used 2 cutters, 4 helicopters and 1 rescue plane  Firefighting Operations No specified plan, no preparation  Many Attempts to Stop the Leakage  Clean-up Operations

 Attempt to close the blowout preventer - FAILED  Placing a 125-tonne containment dome over largest leak – FAILED  Pumping heavy drilling fluids into the blowout preventer – FAILED  The permanent solution:  Drilling of relief wells to reduce the pressure in the main well. Cement pumping finally resulted and the well capped. The well was effectively killed on September 19, 2010 Nearly 5 months of leakage

 April 28 – U.S. Military joins the clean-up  U.S. Government – Unified Command Structure ◦ BP, Transocean ◦ Federal Agencies:  Minerals Management Service  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)  Coast Guard  Fish and Wildlife Service  National Park Service  Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

 4 fundamental strategies ◦ Controlled Burns, Containment, Chemical Dispersal, Oil Removal

 Total Response Vessels: 6,300  Total boom deployed: 1,500km  Oily Water Recovered: 15+ million gallons  Chemical Dispersant Used: 1.1+ million gallons  Oil recovered: 10,5 million gallons  Overall personnel responded: 37,000+

 Environmental Effects on Gulf Ecosystem Nearly 9,000 species of animals imposed o Fish, birds and other marine animals Unexpected changes in the population of species o Destruption of habitats Increase in the concentration of carcinogens and chemical materials in ocean by 40 times o Genetically modified sea creatures have emerged The future effects could not be predicted

 Environmental Effects on Human Life ◦ The biggest health crisis in coastal cities ◦ Water and air pollution ◦ Food Shortage ◦ Pollution created economical discolation for local people

◦ An appliable crisis plan was not available ◦ Initial denial of responsibility ◦ Inconvenient behaviour of the CEO ◦ Misinforming the media ◦ Inappropriate relations with judges What Was Wrong?What Was Right? ◦ A good PR performance ◦ Live broadcast from the disaster location ◦ Using trustworthy people for the campaign ◦ The effective use of social media