![]() No, it could be deadly.Īnd, well, that’s exactly what it became. One skipped safety check could be dangerous. It’s the oil pressure, bubbling up from some 20,000 feet down, that you have to worry about. Of course, the real roughnecks know that corporate pressure is the least of their worries on a deep-water rig. But the biggest of the wigs, Donald Vidrine, isn’t averse to applying as much pressure as necessary to get the rig back on schedule. They are so panicked, in fact, that they’re demanding that safety precautions be bypassed for the sake of expediency and efficiency. You see, those money-hungry bigwigs are wringing their hands over mounting delays in Deepwater’s scheduled delivery of its black gold prize from the ocean depths. Jimmy” as he’s known to his men-has to have some one-on-one time with the British Petroleum execs who are belligerently tossing out unrealistic orders to his men again. There are, oh, dozens of systems that could use a bit of tender love from Mike’s crew-from computer terminals to phones. In fact, when those blue-collar contractors step off the helicopter onto the deck of their floating rig, things start off as they always do. Just another long 21-day shift away from their families. No, they just knew it was time for another tour on their offshore drilling rig, Deepwater Horizon. The ecosystem is expected to take years to recover.On the evening of April 20, 2010, some 40 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico, things went awry.īut on the morning of the 20th, chief electrician Mike Williams and crew manager Jimmy Harrell didn’t have any inkling of the horrific oil-spewing disaster that was just hours from erupting. ![]() The Deepwater Horizon incident ended up being the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, and recent studies have found the pollution has lead to deformities in fish stocks in the area. The impact of the spill is still being felt, though. Darkly, BP's shares actually rose after the report, reportedly based on the fact it wasn't solely responsible for the disaster. However, it ultimately determined BP made "a series of decisions that complicated cementing operations, added risk, and may have contributed to the ultimate failure of the cement job", which in turn allowed such a catastrophic volume of oil to flood the ocean. The final report into the Deepwater disaster found BP was most to blame, though also held Transocean and contractor Halliburton to account - the latter for laying faulty cement in the well to begin with. The leak was plugged on July 15 and eventually, on September 19 the well was declared "officially dead" by US Coast Guard admiral Thad Allen, after cement was pumped in through a relief well. Other efforts to control the spill included controlled burns, setting the seas on fire, while skipper ships attempted to scoop the oil out of the water. Oil gushed out of the well for a staggering 87 days, as repeated attempts to plug the hole failed. The sludge spread, affecting beaches, wetlands, and wildlife. ![]() The resulting oil spill saw around 780,000 cubic meters of oil gush into the waters, impacting 180,000 square kilometers of ocean. ![]() Mike Williams, an electronics technician (and Wahlberg's character in the cinematic take on the events) later testified he had raised concerns about safety. However, US federal data revealed that "three of every four incidents that triggered federal investigations into safety and other problems on deepwater drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico since 2008 have been on rigs operated by Transocean." In an irony fit for the big screen, executives were onboard Deepwater on 20 April when the explosions wracked the vessel, celebrating seven straight years without serious accidents.
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