Oil and Gas Extraction Accident Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Oil and Gas Extraction Accident - Essay ExampleMoreover, numerous permits have been given for assessment of mineral resources in the territorial waters allowing energy companies and international fisheries to move their activities into increasingly deeper waters. However, such activities increase the possibilities of accidents and disasters that can cause far-reaching impacts on ocean ecosystems (Hsing,Fu,Larcom,Berlet,Shank,2013). Thus, on April 2010 in the northern Gulf of Mexico, there emerged an accident that released four million barrels of oil from Deepwater Horizon drilling rig to the Gulf of Mexico by the next month of the same year. While oil on the surface was removed by different cleanup operations, over thirty percent of the hydrocarbons were drowned in deep-sea plumes. As a result, the Deepwater Horizon blowout actually caused two incidents. First, the oil spill on surface influenced the deepwater plume with chronic subsurface set up and second, mid-water plankton and a variety of mid-water species, as well as the shores to which the oil spill came, were seriously damaged (Montagna PA, Baguley JG, Cooksey C, Hartwell I, Hyde LJ, et al. (2013). On April 20, 2010, the crew of the Deepwater Horizon was preparing to temporary abandon BPs Macondo discovery. The well had reached a depth. The final string of production had been put in the hole and cemented in place. Mud had been lost to the reservoir while drilling the underside portion of the well. It is difficult to create a good cement tender between the casing and the formation and it is impossible to provide the efficiency of the cement seal without running a cement- bond log. The cement contained a nitrogen additive to make it lighter. Gas from the reservoir may have further diluted the viscousness of the cement. The workers waitedfor the cement to dryhe crew began displacing the drilling mud in the wellbore and riser with sea water.