BP’s Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (2010)

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, also known as the "BP oil spill", was an industrial catastrophe that started on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of the United States on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is regarded as the biggest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry and is estimated to have a volume 8 to 31% larger than the Ixtoc I oil spill, which also occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. The overall discharge was estimated by the US federal government to be 4,900 Mbbl (210 million US gal; 780,000 m3). The well was declared blocked on September 19, 2010, following multiple unsuccessful attempts to stop the flow.

Early 2012 reports said the well site was still leaking. One of the worst environmental catastrophes in human history is said to have occurred with the Deepwater Horizon oil leak. The reasons behind the explosion and record-breaking leak became the subject of several investigations. The United States Government report, which was released in September 2011, blamed BP in the majority but also rig operator Transocean and contractor Halliburton for the well's defective cement. A White House commission also held BP and its partners accountable for a number of cost-cutting measures and a weak safety system earlier in 2011, but it also came to the conclusion that the spill had "systemic" root causes and, in the absence of significant reform in both business practices and governmental policies, might well happen again.

BP and the US Department of Justice reached a settlement on federal criminal charges in November 2012, and BP pleaded guilty to 11 counts of manslaughter, two misdemeanors, and a felony count of lying to the US Congress. Additionally, BP consented to four years of government oversight of its safety procedures and business conduct, and the Environmental Protection Agency declared BP temporarily ineligible for new contracts with the American government. BP and the Department of Justice reached an agreement on record-breaking fines and other payments totaling $4.525 billion. As of 2018, the company had incurred more than $65 billion in costs related to clean-up, charges, and penalties.

When: 2010
Where: Gulf of Mexico
Oil spilt: 210 million gallons