Macondo Blow Out Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 3

Macondo Blow Out - Research Paper Example On April the 20th at 9:45 PM the Macondo oil rig experienced a blow out that resulted from a jet of seawater being ejected from the riser accompanied by a slushy of mud and oil followed by jets of methane. This mixture, especially the methane, ignited and caused a series of explosions that served to cripple the well and eventually took the lives of 11 personnel.1 At the time the explosion occurred, the Deepwater Horizon rig was drilling at a depth of around 5000 feet into what experts have described as the Macondo Prospect which is located approximately 40 miles from the coast of Louisiana (Rose et al 2). Although the ownership of Deepwater Horizon has remained unclear to a host of individuals, the fact of the matter was that BP did not operate the rig solely under its own direction. Rather, BP was the owner of the rig itself but only held a 65% share of ownership in relation to the Mississippi Canyon drilling expedition that resulted in the disaster of Deepwater Horizon. Additionally, the remaining 35% of interest in the rig was split between Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, aka Halliburton Corporation, (which held a 25% share) and MOEX Offshore 2007 (which held a 10% share). After the explosion took place, the Macondo Blow-Out began to gush crude oil into the ocean at a rate of around 2.6 million gallons per day. This figure is disputed by different groups that either wish to minimize or maximize the effect that the Deepwater Horizon disaster had on the surrounding environment; however, for this study, the author has chosen to employ the Coast Guard’s estimates as those which were most likely to not experience any form of particular bias with relation to the disaster. Most scholars agree that the rate of flow of the oil seepage continued virtually unabated until the well was capped on the 19th of September of the same year. Certain experts disagree with this analysis and claim that the well gushed more oil in the initial stages  whereas, near the time when the well was capped, most of the pressure had been relieved thus much less oil was flowing.  Ã‚