CASE STUDY DEEPWATER HORIZON BACKGROUND 6 CLASS WORK Deepwater Horizon was one of the biggest environmental disasters in human history. Discuss the questions. Have you heard about it? What do you know? If you haven’t heard about it, make hypotheses on what it could be. CASE PRESENTATION 7 Read the first paragraph of a text on Deepwater Horizon to check your answers to the previous activity. The Deepwater Horizon , also called the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, is the largest marine oil spill in history. It occurred on 20th April 2010, and was caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon , located in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 66 km off the coast of Louisiana. The rig sank two days later, on the 22nd April. Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill oil spill oil rig 8 Read the rest of the text and answer the questions. The Deepwater Horizon oil rig was owned and operated by offshore-oil-drilling company Transocean and by oil company BP. The was located on the at 1,522 metres below the surface and extended approximately 5,486 metres into the rock. On the night of 20th April, a surge of natural gas through a which had been recently installed in order to the well for later use. Unfortunately, the core was too weak to the pressure. Once released by the fracture of the core, the natural gas travelled up to the platform, where it , killing 11 workers and injuring 17. The rig and sank on the morning of 22nd April, rupturing the , through which had been injected in order to the upward pressure of oil and natural gas. Without any opposing force, oil began to into the gulf. The volume of oil escaping the damaged well, originally estimated by BP to be about 1,000 barrels per day, was thought by U.S. government officials to have peaked at more than 60,000 barrels per day. The explosion leased oil well seabed blasted concrete core seal withstand ignited capsized riser drilling mud counteract discharge Although BP attempted to activate the rig’s blowout preventer (BOP), a mechanism designed to close the channel through which oil was , the device malfunctioned. Forensic analysis of the BOP completed the following year determined that a set of massive , designed through the pipe carrying oil, had malfunctioned because the pipe had under the pressure of the rising gas and oil. A 2014 report by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board claimed that the blades had activated sooner than previously thought and may have actually punctured the pipe. Adapted from: Leaking oil fail-safe drawn blades to slice bent https://www.britannica.com/event/DeepwaterHorizon-oil-spill How were BP and Transocean involved in Deepwater Horizon? When did the accident occur? What were the initial stages of the accident? What then happened on 22nd April? What do the following numbers refer to? 11; 17; 60,000. What caused the oil to leak into the water?