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Deepwater Horizon
Deepwater Horizon was a gulf oil disaster in April 2010 due to oil spillage and an explosion of Macondo Prospect (Mississippi Canyon Block 252) well deep under the water in the Gulf of Mexico. This was recorded as the largest marine oil spillage by volume covering approximately 180000 square kilometers of the ocean. The project was owned by Transocean and built by Hyundai Heavy Industries, and later chartered to BP. On 20th April 2010, Methane gas came from the well, which expanded and rose into the drilling rig, which ignited, causing an explosion. The incident took the lives of eleven crew members and injuring many others. The disaster poses various devastating health problems and complications to human and marine life and also triggers economic, environmental, human consequences around the Gulf of Mexico in the USA. According to the reports, the leading causes of the explosion was defective cement which was used on the borehole; there was a failure in two valves, a gas alarm, and battery backup system, Pressures test was misinterpreted, and last but not least, improper management and oversight of the industry by the personnel.
The government temporarily stopped all offshore oil drilling operations during the spill, which endangered thousands of offshore petrol workers in the Gulf. The panel still discusses the enduring environmental and economic consequences of the BP oil spill. Many citizens without jobs in the fishing, tourism, and petroleum industry were unable to fulfill their financial commitments, which impacted the entire country. There are also questions about oil sunk on the Gulf floor and the retardants used to minimize this tragedy. Let’s take a look at the impact on the environment. The spilled water contained more polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon than before the spill. In 2010, there was a report stating that the spillage affected the marine life in the Gulf. The spill causes the destruction of the damaged floor, which threaten the life of the Batfish. After the spill, there were many deaths of the baby dolphins along the Mississippi and Alabama shoreline in their first birthing season. Even the one that survived was endangered and diseased with abnormalities, and the majority was found stranded in the oil spillage area. The statistics show that over 650 dolphins have been found stranded in the oil spill area compared to previous years before the BP spill. All of these happened because of the BP crew members’ professional negligence leading to economic, environmental, and human consequences.
From the incident that occurred, the leading cause of the Macondo oil spillage resulted from the failure of management by BP, Halliburton, and Transocean. They would have prevented scenarios or blowouts by employing more trained personnel to identify, analyze and evaluate the risk they were facing and address them. For people and machinery, the architectural walls, or bulkheads, on the Deepwater Horizon did not achieve the appropriate blast protection degree. Analysis has demonstrated that bulkheads were not well equipped, which could not withstand resulting heavy fire and hydrocarbon explosions. The key lesson we learned from the incident that occurred is that; fire risk and thorough explosion analysis and evaluation should be conducted to determine the architectural compounds for each structural component that can withstand fire explosion and blast protection. The structure should be designed according to the standard that allows the safety and security of the people. This was the leading cause of the spillage.
Gas detectors were activating some alarms on the bridge. The engine rooms’ emergency shutdown system was not activated automatically, or the airflow to the engine rooms could have been stopped. This was a manual procedure, and the crews were unfortunately not trained to identify threats for activating the emergency shutdown. When the shutdown was triggered, it would have been possible to delay or avoid the engine room’s explosions. Proper training of the crew is required to operate the alarm system, right orientation and arrangement of the gas alarm and gas detection are vital.
Life in the Gulf of Mexico has dramatically changed since the hit of crude oil spillage. Although beaches can look clean, the story is different at the bottom of the ocean. For local wildlife and peoples have been affected. The disaster poses economic, environmental consequences. In conclusion, proper management is very crucial in running an organization or a project.