2011 Ultimate Guide to the BP Macondo Well Gulf of Mexico Disaster

Book excerpt: This long-awaited report, issued on September 14 2011 by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement of the Department of Interior, provides authoritative, official findings on the investigation into the causes of the Macondo well blowout on the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. At approximately 9:50 p.m. on the evening of April 20, 2010, while the crew of the Deepwater Horizon rig was finishing work after drilling the Macondo exploratory well, an undetected influx of hydrocarbons (commonly referred to as a "kick") escalated to a blowout. Shortly after the blowout, hydrocarbons that had flowed onto the rig floor through a mud-gas vent line ignited in two separate explosions. Flowing hydrocarbons fueled a fire on the rig that continued to burn until the rig sank on April 22. Eleven men died on the Deepwater Horizon that evening. Over the next 87 days, almost five million barrels of oil were discharged from the Macondo well into the Gulf of Mexico.