C ASE STUDY DEEPWATER HORIZON BACKGROUND 6 CLASS WORK Deepwater Horizon was one of the biggest environmental disasters in human history. Discuss the questions. 1. Have you heard about it? What do you know? 2. 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. Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill The Deepwater Horizon oil spill , 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 oil rig , located in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 66 km off the coast of Louisiana. The rig sank two days later, on the 22nd April. 8 Read the rest of the text and answer the questions. The explosion The Deepwater Horizon oil rig was owned and operated by offshore-oil-drilling company Transocean and leased by oil company BP. The oil well was located on the seabed 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 blasted through a concrete core which had been recently installed in order to seal the well for later use. Unfortunately, the core was too weak to withstand the pressure. Once released by the fracture of the core, the natural gas travelled up to the platform, where it ignited , killing 11 workers and injuring 17. The rig capsized and sank on the morning of 22nd April, rupturing the riser , through which drilling mud had been injected in order to counteract the upward pressure of oil and natural gas. Without any opposing force, oil began to discharge into the gulf. The volume of 260 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. Leaking oil Although BP attempted to activate the rig s blowout preventer (BOP), a fail-safe mechanism designed to close the channel through which oil was drawn , the device malfunctioned. Forensic analysis of the BOP completed the following year determined that a set of massive blades , designed to slice through the pipe carrying oil, had malfunctioned because the pipe had bent 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: https://www.britannica.com/event/DeepwaterHorizon-oil-spill 1. How were BP and 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 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? blade: lama to bend: piegarsi to blast: esplodere to capsize: ribaltarsi concrete: calcestruzzo core: nucleo to counteract: contrastare to discharge: scaricare to draw: aspirare drilling mud: fango di perforazione fail-safe: meccanismo di protezione in caso di guasto to ignite: prendere fuoco leaking: perdita to lease: locare, affittare moratorium: moratoria (a temporary prohibition of an activity) rig: impianto, piattaforma riser: camino seabed: fondale marino to seal: sigillare to slice: (qui) tagliare, separare spill: versamento (di un liquido) surge: ondata well: pozzo to withstand: sopportare