Oil Industry Disasters

Deepwater Horizon, The Lakewood Gusher, Kuwaiti Oil Fields, Ixtoc I, Exxon Valdex. This article takes a look at some of the worst oil spills in history.

Deepwater Horizon 2010

The Deepwater Horizon oil platform explosion took place on 20 April 2010. The semi submersible rig was positioned 40 miles south of the Louisiana coast. The rig owned by Transocean was operated under lease by BP. Eleven workers were killed and seventeen were injured in the explosion. The oil spill that resulted from the explosion contaminated most of the Louisiana coastline. Scientists estimate that oil is leaking at the rate of between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels of oila  day. To date, this is the second worst oil spill in American history. The well leaks an amount of oil equivalent to the Exxon Valdez oil spill every other week

The Lakeview Gusher 1910

The Lakeview Gusher is regarded as the worse oil spill i history. It began on 14 March 1910 in a well drilled by the Lakeview Oil Company in Kern County Calilfornia. The spill lasted 18 months and released an estimated 9 million barrels of crude oil. The drilling company expected to find only natural gas at the well. Inastead they found a huge a reserve at a higher pressure than they could contain. Part of the rise in pressure came frm geothermal activity in the area. With a modern well, blow out preventers would have probably prevented the spill.

The Gulf Oil Spill, Kuwait 1990

The Kuwait Oil spill was part of a deliberate scorched earth policy by Iraqi forces in response to an American led invasion of Kuwait. According to various estimates between two and six million barrels of oil were released forming a slick 101 by 42 miles in extent reaching a depth of five inches in places. AccoridIng to a New York Times report from 1993 “about half the oil evaporated, a million barrels were recovered and 2 million to 3 million barrels washed ashore, mainly in Saudi Arabia”.[

Ixtoc 1 1979

The Ixtoc 1 Semi submersible experienced a blow out on 3 June 1979. The Mexican state company Petróleos Mexicanos (Penmex) was drilling an exploratory well  in the Bay of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico, about 100 km (62 mi) northwest of mainland. When the oil caught fire the burning rig collapsed into the sea. Between ten and thirty thousand barrels per day were discharged into the Gulf for 10 months. The well was finally capped on 23 March 1980. Pemex claimed that half of the released oil burned when it reached the surface, a third of it evaporated, and the rest was contained or dispersed.

MV Atlantic Express

Exxon Valdez 1989

Although serious, the much publicised Exxon Valdez disaster ranks as only the 54th largest oil spill in history.

On 24 March 1989 the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska. This was a high profile disaster partly because it effected a beautiful and environmentally sensitive part of the American coast, partly because of long running litigation which followed the disaster and took over a decade to resolve.  Estimates vary as to the amount of oil that was releases with figures varying from 257,000 to 750,000 barrels.

The scale of these oil disasters is astonishing. It is also interesting that apart from the Gulf disaster, the big oil spills have arisen from blowouts on experimental wells.