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The Documentary: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Deepwater Horizon oil spill

19/06/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Deepwater Horizon oil spill

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion that caused the largest environmental disaster

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion that caused the largest environmental disaster in US history.

In the evening of 20 April 2010 disaster struck at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig when a blowout caused by a surge in methane gas from the oil well exploded engulfing the platform.

For the next 87 days, BP engineers tried to staunch the flow of crude oil gushing out of the well on the ocean floor. An estimated 184 million gallons were spilt, 18 times the amount spilled by the Exxon Valdez, making it the largest accidental marine oil spill in the world, and the largest environmental disaster in US history. 

As oil coated more than 1,000 miles of coastline in six US states, Americans grew more and more angry. A group calling itself Seize BP held demonstrations in 50 US cities, calling for the company to be stripped of its assets. Twelve billion pounds was wiped off the company's value in a single day and BP's CEO, Tony Hayward, was forced to resign. 

Kirsty Wark brings together Mark Mazzella, BP’s resident well-control expert, who fought on and off-shore to stop the oil flowing before finally capping it; Admiral Thad Allen, National Incident Commander, who was in charge of the federal response; PJ Hahn, then director of coastal zone management for Plaquemines parish, Louisiana, which was on the front line of the oil spill; Keith Jones, whose son Gordon worked on the Deepwater Horizon rig and was killed in the accident; and Bob Kaluza one of two BP supervisors on the rig that night.

(Photo: Crews on ships work on stopping the flow of oil at the source site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster on 29 May, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. Credit:  Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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