The small fish seahorse ragpicker lives. Rag picker seahorse
Explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform— an accident that occurred on April 20, 2010, 80 kilometers off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, and over time developed into a man-made disaster, first on a local, then on a regional scale, with negative consequences for the region’s ecosystem for many decades to come.
One of the largest man-made disasters in world history in terms of negative impact on the environmental situation. Currently recognized as the largest oil spill into the open ocean in US history, and probably in world history.
Chronology of events
Explosion and fire
On April 20, 2010, at 22:00 local time, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon platform, causing a large fire. Shortly before this, a well tightness test was carried out, during which 3 times more drilling fluid was consumed than expected. As a result of the explosion, seven people were injured, four of them are in critical condition, and 11 people are missing. In total, at the time of the emergency, 126 people were working on the drilling platform, which is larger than two football fields, and about 2.6 million liters of diesel fuel were stored. The platform's capacity was 8 thousand barrels per day.
The Deepwater Horizon oil platform sank on April 22 after a 36-hour fire that followed a massive explosion. After the explosion and flooding, the oil well was damaged and oil from it began to flow into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil spill
The 965-kilometer-wide oil slick has come within about 34 kilometers of the Louisiana coast, threatening beaches and fishing grounds that are critical to the economies of coastal states. On April 26, four BP underwater robots attempted to repair the leak without success. The flotilla, consisting of 49 tugs, barges, rescue boats and other vessels, was hampered by strong winds and rough seas. US emergency services have begun a controlled burn of an oil slick off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. The first flame on the oil slick was lit on Wednesday, April 28 at about 16.45 local time (01.45 Thursday Moscow time).
It is estimated that up to 5 thousand barrels (about 700 tons or 795,000 liters) of oil per day are spilled into the waters in the Gulf of Mexico. However, experts do not rule out that in the near future this figure could reach 50 thousand barrels per day due to the appearance of additional leaks in the well pipe. An internal BP report released on June 20 said that the volume of leakage could be up to 100 thousand barrels (about 14,000 tons or 16,000,000 liters) daily, without taking into account the volume of oil that can be collected using a protective dome (which is about 15 thousand barrels per day). day). For comparison, the volume of oil spill that occurred as a result of the Exxon Valdez tanker accident, which was previously considered the most environmentally destructive disaster that has ever occurred at sea, amounted to about 260 thousand barrels of oil (about 36,000 tons or 40,900,000 liters ).
As of May 17, the oil slick on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico spread to the north (US coast) slightly compared to the data from April 28, which is certainly due to measures to prevent the spread of oil and its collection by forces and means of BP and US emergency services. A special contribution is made by US citizens who volunteer to help rescuers. However, the spread of the spot to the south (into the open sea) is quite pronounced.
On June 4, the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, based on available climate data, modeled six options for the spread of oil. According to all six options, in early August of this year, the water-oil emulsion will reach the northern coast of Cuba, including the beaches of Varadero. In the second half of August, oil may also reach the northern coast of the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula. The model of American scientists shows that the oil slick will in any case leave the Gulf of Mexico and begin to move into the North Atlantic in the direction of Europe.
On April 30, oil reached the mouth of the Mississippi River, and on May 6, the coast of Louisiana. On June 5, oil reached the coast of Florida, on June 28, the coast of Mississippi, and on July 6, oil reached the coast of Texas. Thus, all US states with access to the Gulf of Mexico have already suffered from the oil spill.
Well sealing
As of July 16, 2010, the well was sealed and the release of oil into the open ocean was stopped. However, the reliability of the design is in question and BP representatives confirm that it is a temporary solution. There are also no reports of the other 2 oil leaks. Thus, for almost three months, the world's oceans were polluted with oil on an industrial scale.
Environmental consequences
In early May 2010, US President Barack Obama called what was happening in the Gulf of Mexico “a potentially unprecedented environmental disaster.” Oil slicks were discovered in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico (one slick 16 km long and 90 meters thick at a depth of up to 1300 meters). Oil may continue to flow from the well until August.
Scientists from the US National Center for Atmospheric Research made computer simulations of 6 possible options for the spread of an oil slick. All 6 options ended with the spot leaving the Gulf of Mexico and ending up in the so-called Gulf Stream loop. Then the Gulf Stream carried him to the shores of Europe. The only differences were in the time the spot left the bay, the maximum being 130 days. However, scientists point out that this modeling is not an accurate forecast and simply serves as a warning of danger, since weather conditions and human cleanup can greatly affect the movement of oil pollution. At the time of the simulation, up to 800,000 barrels of oil entered the water.
Dispersants of the Corexit family are widely used to combat oil spills on the surface of water.
Elimination of accident consequences
Previously, attempts had been made to block three breakthroughs, but only one of them, the smallest one, was closed. The other two cannot be overlapped due to their size.
Burning of associated gas at the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. "Q4000" (right) and "Discoverer Enterprise". July 8, 2010.
Primary operations are carried out by the drillship Discoverer Enterprise and the Q4000 multi-purpose semi-submersible platform on site. On May 7, the installation of a protective dome began at the site of the emergency oil well.
By May 16, it was possible to pump oil out of the well using a one-mile pipe. But this is a temporary measure; definitive methods for eliminating the leak have not yet been developed. On May 28, an attempt was made to cement the well, but on May 30, messages were received that this could not be done.
On June 3, with the help of remotely controlled robots, it was possible to cut off the deformed part of the drill pipe and install a protective dome. However, this did not help completely stop the oil leak.
On June 9, the administration of President Barack Obama issued an ultimatum to British Petroleum, which was given 72 hours to submit a final plan to eliminate the consequences of the explosion and stop the release of oil.
On the night of July 12, British Petroleum installed a new protective device (plug) weighing 70 tons. The previous plug, which was unable to contain oil, was removed on July 10, and about 120 thousand barrels of oil could have spilled into the bay.
BP's financial costs to eliminate the accident
British Petroleum's costs for eliminating the consequences of the accident are growing every day - figures were announced at 450 million, 600 million, 930 million, 990 million and 1.250 billion US dollars. As of June 14, 2010, losses amounted to US$1.6 billion. According to British Petroleum on July 12, 2010, its costs for eliminating the consequences of the accident have already amounted to $3.5 billion, including $165 million of this amount went to cover payments for individual claims.
The tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico showed how man with his own hands can destroy nature with the help of nature within a few weeks. We invite you to recall the 10 largest black gold spills on water in the history of mankind.
The tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico showed how man with his own hands can destroy nature with the help of nature within a few weeks. While BP is urgently looking for money to restore the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and the US authorities are deciding what to do with offshore drilling, we propose to recall the 10 largest black gold spills on water in the history of mankind.
1.In 1978 The tanker Amoco Cadiz ran aground off the coast of Brittany (France). Due to stormy weather, it was impossible to carry out a rescue operation. At that time, this accident was the largest environmental disaster in European history. It is estimated that 20 thousand birds died. More than 7 thousand people took part in the rescue efforts. 223 thousand tons of oil spilled into the water, forming a spot measuring two thousand square kilometers. Oil also spread to 360 kilometers of the French coast. According to some scientists, the ecological balance in this region has not yet been restored.
2. In 1979 The largest accident in history occurred on the Mexican oil platform Ixtoc I. As a result, up to 460 thousand tons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. Elimination of the consequences of the accident took almost a year. It is curious that for the first time in history, special flights were organized to evacuate sea turtles from the disaster zone. The leak was stopped only after nine months, during which time 460 thousand tons of oil entered the Gulf of Mexico. The total damage is estimated at $1.5 billion.
3. Also in 1979 The largest oil spill in history occurred due to a tanker collision. Then two tankers collided in the Caribbean Sea: Atlantic Empress and Aegean Captain. As a result of the accident, almost 290 thousand tons of oil entered the sea. One of the tankers sank. By a happy coincidence, the disaster occurred on the high seas, and not a single coast (the closest was the island of Trinidad) was damaged.
4. In March 1989 The oil tanker Exxon Valdez of the American company Exxon ran aground in Prince Williams Sound off the coast of Alaska. Through a hole in the ship, over 48 thousand tons of oil spilled into the ocean. As a result, over 2.5 thousand square kilometers of marine waters were damaged, and 28 species of animals were threatened with extinction. The area of the accident was difficult to access (it can only be reached by sea or by helicopter), which made it impossible for services and rescuers to quickly respond. As a result of the disaster, about 10.8 million gallons of oil (about 260 thousand barrels or 40.9 million liters) spilled into the sea, forming an oil slick covering 28 thousand square kilometers. In total, the tanker was carrying 54.1 million gallons of oil. About two thousand kilometers of coastline were polluted with oil.
5. In 1990 Iraq captured Kuwait. The troops of the anti-Iraqi coalition, formed by 32 states, defeated the Iraqi army and liberated Kuwait. However, in preparation for the defense, the Iraqis opened the valves at the oil terminals and emptied several tankers laden with oil. This step was taken in order to complicate the landing of troops. Up to 1.5 million tons of oil (different sources give different data) spilled into the Persian Gulf. Since the fighting was ongoing, no one fought the consequences of the disaster for some time. Oil covered approximately 1 thousand square meters. km. surface of the bay and polluted about 600 km. coasts. In order to prevent further oil spills, US aircraft bombed several Kuwaiti oil pipelines.
6 In January 2000 A major oil spill occurred in Brazil. More than 1.3 million liters of oil fell into the waters of Guanabara Bay, on the shore of which Rio de Janeiro is located, from the Petrobras company pipeline, which led to the largest environmental disaster in the history of the metropolis. According to biologists, it will take nature almost a quarter of a century to fully restore environmental damage. Brazilian biologists compared the scale of the environmental disaster with the consequences of the Gulf War. Fortunately, the oil was stopped. She passed four urgently constructed barriers with the current and “stuck” only on the fifth. Some of the raw materials have already been removed from the surface of the river, some have spilled into special diversion channels dug on an emergency basis. The remaining 80 thousand gallons out of a million (4 million liters) that fell into the reservoir were scooped out by workers by hand.
7. In November 2002 The tanker Prestige broke apart and sank off the coast of Spain. 64 thousand tons of fuel oil ended up in the sea. €2.5 million was spent on eliminating the consequences of the accident. After this incident, the EU blocked single-hull tankers from accessing its waters. The age of the sunken ship is 26 years. It was built in Japan and owned by a company registered in Liberia, which in turn is managed by a Greek firm registered in the Bahamas and certified by an American organization. The ship was chartered by a Russian company operating in Switzerland, which transports oil from Latvia to Singapore. The Spanish government has filed a $5 billion lawsuit against the US Maritime Bureau for the role its negligence played in the Prestige tanker disaster off the coast of Galicia last November.
8. In August 2006 year, a tanker accident occurred in the Philippines. Then 300 km of coastline in two provinces of the country, 500 hectares of mangrove forests and 60 hectares of seaweed plantations were polluted. The Taklong Marine Reserve, which was home to 29 species of coral and 144 species of fish, was also damaged. As a result of the fuel oil spill, about 3 thousand Filipino families were affected. Tanker Solar 1 of the Sunshine Maritne Development Corporation was hired to transport 1,800 tons of fuel oil to the Philippine state-owned Petron. Local fishermen, who previously could catch up to 40-50 kg of fish per day, now struggle to catch up to 10 kg. To do this, they have to go far from where pollution spreads. But even this fish cannot be sold. The province, which just graduated from the list of the 20 poorest regions in the Philippines, appears to be slipping back into poverty for years to come.
9. November 11, 2007 year, a storm in the Kerch Strait caused an unprecedented emergency in the Azov and Black Seas - in one day, four ships sank, six more ran aground, and two tankers were damaged. More than 2 thousand tons of fuel oil spilled from the broken tanker Volgoneft-139 into the sea, and about 7 thousand tons of sulfur were on the sunken dry cargo ships. Rosprirodnadzor estimated the environmental damage caused by the wreck of several ships in the Kerch Strait at 6.5 billion rubles. The damage from the death of birds and fish in the Kerch Strait alone was estimated at approximately 4 billion rubles.
10. April 20, 2010 At 22:00 local time, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon platform, causing a large fire. As a result of the explosion, seven people were injured, four of them are in critical condition, and 11 people are missing. In total, at the time of the emergency, 126 people were working on the drilling platform, which is larger than two football fields, and about 2.6 million liters of diesel fuel were stored. The platform's capacity was 8 thousand barrels per day. It is estimated that up to 5 thousand barrels (about 700 tons) of oil per day are spilled into the waters in the Gulf of Mexico. However, experts do not rule out that in the near future this figure could reach 50 thousand barrels per day due to the appearance of additional leaks in the well pipe. In early May 2010, US President Barack Obama called what was happening in the Gulf of Mexico “a potentially unprecedented environmental disaster.” Oil slicks were discovered in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico (one slick 16 km long and 90 meters thick at a depth of up to 1300 meters). Oil may continue to flow from the well until August.
In April 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and released 4.9 million barrels of oil into the ocean. The BP rig failure threatened wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico and threatened to pollute hundreds of miles of coastline. What are the environmental consequences of one of the largest oil spills in history, and are they as catastrophic as feared a year ago? ..
Consequences of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
Scientists warn that the time has not yet come for a thoughtful assessment of the impact of the accident in the Gulf of Mexico on nature, since they have not received a complete picture of what is happening over the past year.The oil spill affected such a large area that it will take months or years to collect data.
However, there are still some reasons for optimism, Jane Lubchenko, administrator of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the leading federal agencies involved in eliminating the consequences of the accident, said in an interview with the Associated Press.
She said the Gulf of Mexico is "much better than feared."
“It’s too early to say that everything is fine,” she says. “Certain surprises are still being discovered - for example, we are finding dead dolphin calves.”
Damage assessment
US federal agencies collect data on the effects of the oil spill as part of an official "natural resource damage assessment" (NRDA).But access to the investigation is severely limited, scientists and environmental activists say.
The NRDA methodology is designed to assess damage to both the environment and economic sectors, such as agriculture and fishing, and calculate the costs of correcting the damage.
"We and many others have tried to get some insight into the findings of this group of agencies and researchers, and it has proven almost impossible," says Claude Gascón, director of scientific research at the nonprofit National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
“And the reason is simple: compensation will be the subject of a lot of litigation,” adds Gascon.
“If [the damage assessment process] were completed in its entirety, it would take several years, perhaps longer, to develop a compensation plan and file claims against the responsible parties,” explains Stan Senner, director of science for the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy. " (Ocean Conservancy).
A similar procedure was carried out after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. Senner was working for the federal government at the time.
“We started the process and assessed the damage. But two years after the spill, the government and Exxon settled their claims out of court and the NRDA process was not completed,” the environmentalist recalls.
Continue observations
Beaches and birds were damaged, but if not for the actions of the authorities, the damage could have been even greater
In his opinion, this time the collection of data on environmental damage will need to continue, even if BP manages to reach an agreement with the US government.
"This may or may not happen, but I want to emphasize that regardless of the settlement of the claims, the scientific work must continue. This will help us understand how long we will have to deal with the consequences of the accident, how long it will take to recover, and so on." - says Senner.
He points out that this information will be necessary to assess the risks associated with oil and gas development in the Arctic.
“Simply much less is known about the Arctic region where oil exploration is proposed,” he says.
“In addition, in the Gulf of Mexico there are much more opportunities to respond to an oil spill, but in the Arctic there are no opportunities. On the Arctic coast of Alaska, for example, there is not even a port that could serve as a base for a response operation,” the scientist warns.
Main consequences
Over the course of three months, during which crude oil flowed from a well at a depth of 1.5 km into the Gulf of Mexico, an oil film covered thousands of square kilometers. A total of 4.9 million barrels of oil entered the sea.800 thousand barrels were collected, approximately 265 thousand that rose to the surface were burned.
More than 8 million liters of chemical reagents were sprayed over the sea.
Coastal pollution
Oil began washing ashore in June 2010, contaminating hundreds of miles of coastline from Florida to Louisiana.In the first few weeks after the spill, the weather was not conducive to coastal pollution, which gave authorities time to take preventive measures. In particular, 4,000 km of barriers were erected in the sea.
Death of sea turtles
The decline of the Gulf of Mexico sea turtle population had been a concern of environmentalists even before the accident: they were dying in fishing nets and their natural habitat was shrinking.After the oil spill, 25,000 turtle eggs were shipped from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic coast of Florida. The operation was seen as a way to prevent an entire generation of sea turtles from dying in polluted waters.
Death of birds
More than 120 species of birds were affected by the oil spill. Ornithologists talk about thousands of individuals. More than half of them died due to feather contamination. The hardest hit were American brown pelicans, which dive into the water to fish. It was possible to create a kind of swamp for migratory birds by flooding agricultural lands, which, according to environmentalists, saved many birds.Swamp pollution
The Gulf of Mexico region is home to a number of coastal wetlands that play a vital role in supporting migratory birds.Favorable weather and quick action by the authorities made it possible to avoid the worst-case scenario. However, oil has leaked into some wetlands and nature reserves.
Death of dolphins
Scientists are concerned about the sharp increase in mortality of bottlenose dolphins recorded after the oil spill. Environmentalists believe that the actual death rate may be 50 times higher than the official figures.During the first dolphin breeding season after the accident, the number of dead calves found on the shore increased sharply. The reasons for this phenomenon are not fully understood.
Death of corals
The Gulf of Mexico is home to tropical coral reefs, but at this stage it is difficult to assess the impact of the oil spill on their fragile ecosystem.Environmentalists say that if oil completely covers the reef, the coral will likely die.
Fish reproduction
After the accident, fishing in large parts of the Gulf of Mexico was prohibited. Over the past year, the number of sharks has increased by 400%, shrimp - by 200%.However, scientists point out that a year is too short a time period to judge the impact of an oil spill, and disruptions to the food chain will manifest themselves in the long term.
Vladimir Khomutko
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How did the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico happen and how was it cleaned up?
In 2010, on April 22, a drilling platform called Deepwater Horizon, owned by British Petroleum (BP), with which BP was engaged in oil production on the sea shelf, sank in the Gulf of Mexico. The result of this disaster was the death of eleven people and an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in the amount of several hundred thousand tons.
The company suffered huge losses, which forced it to begin selling part of its assets in many countries around the world. In total, as a result of this terrible accident, according to experts, almost five million barrels of crude oil ended up in the sea.
The Deepwater Horizon platform, designed for ultra-deep drilling, commissioned by R&B Falcon Transocean Ltd. built by the South Korean shipbuilding company Hyundai Industries. This large floating structure was launched into the water in 2001, and some time later it was leased by the British oil and gas concern British Petroleum (BP). Subsequently, the lease period was extended several times, and the last signed agreement gave BP the opportunity to operate Deepwater Horizon until the beginning of 2013.
In February 2010, a British company began developing a deepwater field called Macondo, located on the shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. The depth of the drilled well was one and a half kilometers.
Brief description of the accident that occurred
The platform described above was located eighty kilometers off the coast of Louisiana (United States of America). On April 20, 2010, a fire started on the Deepwater Horizon, which subsequently provoked its explosion.
The platform burned for more than thirty-five hours. A whole flotilla of fire-fighting vessels arrived at the scene of the accident to extinguish the fire, but to no avail. The platform disappeared into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico on April 22.
As a result of this disaster, eleven people went missing (many consider them dead, since their bodies were searched until April 24, but they were never found). 115 service personnel were evacuated from the burning platform, seventeen of them had injuries of varying degrees of severity. After some time, world news agencies reported that two more people died in the process of eliminating the consequences of this enormous disaster.
Work to eliminate the consequences of the accident on the Deepwater Horizon platform
Elimination of the consequences of this environmental disaster began on April 20 and continued until September 19, 2010. According to information received from some experts, during this period of time, about five thousand barrels of crude oil were poured into the sea every day. Other competent sources claimed that the daily volume of oil entering the sea was up to 100 thousand barrels.
Fighting fire on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform
It was this figure that the Secretary of the Interior of the United States of America insisted on in May 2010.
The consequences of the accident were terrifying. At the end of April, the oil slick reached the mouth of the American Mississippi River, and in July of the same year, crude oil was discovered on the beaches of Texas. The underwater oil plume sank to a depth of more than a kilometer and stretched for thirty-five kilometers in length.
During the 152 days that the cleanup work was carried out, almost five million barrels of black gold entered the Gulf of Mexico through the damaged wellbore, and the total area of the contamination spot reached seventy-five thousand square kilometers.
After the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon platform, attempts immediately began to seal the oil well in order to stop the release of oil into the aquatic environment and begin to localize and eliminate the raw materials that had already entered the sea. Almost immediately after the disaster, specialists installed plugs on the damaged pipe column.
Then work began on the installation and subsequent installation of a steel dome, the task of which was to cover the sunken platform in order to prevent further oil spills. However, the first attempt failed to install the dome. On May 13, it was decided to reduce its diameter and try again.
The oil leak was completely eliminated only on August 4, when drilling fluid and cement were pumped into the damaged well. To achieve complete tightness of the well, the accident liquidators were forced to drill two additional wells for relief purposes, which were subsequently also cemented. The fact that the well sealing was completely completed was officially announced on September 19, 2010.
Numerous vessels for various purposes - rescue boats, barges - took part in eliminating the consequences of the disaster. Tugs and even BP-owned submarines. To help them, the United States allocated ships and aircraft of its Navy and Air Force, as well as many units of special military equipment. As for human resources, more than a thousand people took part in this monumental work, assisted by almost six thousand members of the American National Guard.
To limit the area of oil contamination as much as possible, sprayed dispersants (active substances that promote the deposition of oil spills) were used. In addition, many kilometers of booms were installed, which localized the emergency spill area.
Oil was collected mechanically, both using special oil recovery ships, and manually, with the help of numerous volunteers who helped clean up the polluted coast. In addition, a thermal method of eliminating pollution was used, which involved controlled burning of oil from the water surface.
An internal investigation conducted by BP's own safety service concluded that the causes of this terrible accident were errors in the design of the platform, a number of technical malfunctions and errors made by the operating personnel.
The prepared report detailed that the employees servicing the floating drilling rig, when checking the tightness of the drilled well, incorrectly interpreted the readings of the pressure measuring instruments.
The result of this error was that the ventilation system of the drilling platform was filled with a stream of hydrocarbons rising from the bottom, and a fire started. After the explosion, due to technical deficiencies in the platform design, the anti-blow-out fuse, whose task was to automatically give a signal to plug the wellbore, did not operate.
In turn, the Bureau of Ocean Resources Management, Conservation and Regulation, as well as the United States Coast Guard, were involved in the investigation. The result of this investigation was a report published in mid-September 2010. It outlined thirty-five reasons that led to the disaster, with twenty-one of them placing full responsibility on BP.
In more detail, for example, the main cause of the accident in this report was called a disregard for industrial safety standards in order to save money spent on field development. In addition, the drilling rig personnel did not have exhaustive and complete information about the work at the well, and this ignorance of theirs, combined with the mistakes they made, led to catastrophic consequences.
Among other reasons for the accident, the report named the unsuccessful design of the well itself, which did not provide a sufficient number of barriers to prevent oil and gas from rising from the bottom, insufficient cementing of the casing reinforcing strings, as well as changes made to the well development project at the very last moment.
Part of the blame was placed on the owners of Deepwater Horizon, Transocean Ltd and Halliburton, which was the contractor for the underwater cementing of this well.
Litigation and awarded compensation
The trial of the Mexican oil spill, in which the British corporation BP was the defendant, began on February 25, 2013. New Orleans (USA) was chosen as the venue. In addition to the claims brought by the federal authorities of the country, the British company was also sued by American states and municipalities affected by the consequences of the disaster.
The result of the consideration by the Federal Court in New Orleans, America, was the approval of the amount of the fine that BP must pay to plaintiffs who suffered from the consequences of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
The total fine amounted to four billion five hundred million US dollars. BP was given a period of five years to pay this amount.
About two billion four hundred million dollars should be transferred to the accounts of the US National Wildlife and Fish Fund, 350 million dollars - to the accounts of the American National Academy of Sciences. In addition, 525 million must be paid over three years as compensation for claims brought against BP by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
BP filed several appeals, but the US Court of Appeal ruled on December 25, 2013 that the British corporation should continue the payments ordered by the Federal Court, despite the fact that the case did not prove the existence of losses for some plaintiffs caused by the oil spill in Gulf of Mexico. From the very beginning, BP admitted only partial responsibility for the accident, placing part of the responsibility on the owner of the Deepwater Horizon platform, Transocean, and the contractor Halliburton.
In turn, Transocean Ltd at the end of 2012 agreed to pay the American authorities an amount of one billion four hundred million dollars, but does not admit any responsibility for what happened in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, insisting on complete guilt in this British BP disaster.
Environmental consequences of the disaster
As a result of this accident, one-third of the Gulf of Mexico was closed to fishing, with a complete ban on fishing in the area.
The length of the coast from Louisiana to Florida, contaminated as a result of an emergency oil spill, was one thousand one hundred miles. Many marine life and birds died. Nearly six hundred dead sea turtles, more than one hundred dolphins, more than six thousand different seabirds, as well as a large number of dead mammals of other species were found on the shore.
The result of this oil spill in the years since the accident has been an increase in mortality among marine life such as dolphins and whales. According to preliminary estimates by environmentalists, the mortality rate of, for example, bottlenose dolphins has increased fiftyfold.
Colossal damage was caused to the tropical coral reefs located in the waters of this bay.
Moreover, the oil spilled as a result of the disaster even leaked into the waters and swamps of nature reserves located on the coast, which play a very significant role in maintaining the normal natural life of the local animal fauna and migratory birds arriving here for the winter. Recent environmental studies indicate that the Gulf of Mexico has now almost completely recovered from the damage caused in 2010.
US oceanologists, who all this time carefully monitored the growth of corals forming tropical reefs, which simply cannot live in oil-polluted water, came to the conclusion that the reproduction of these marine living organisms has resumed, and growth has returned to its previous level. As for biologists, they noted a slight increase in the average water temperature in this sea area.
It was even suggested that the temperature of the Gulf Stream dropped by ten degrees, which led to its division into separate underwater currents. It is worth noting that since this enormous emergency oil spill occurred, some weather anomalies have been noted by weather forecasters (take, for example, the abnormal winter frosts in European countries).
However, to date, world science has not come to a consensus on the question of whether this environmental disaster was the root cause of the described climate changes or not. There is no agreement in the scientific community about the impact of this accident on the Gulf Stream. In any case, disasters of this magnitude do not pass without a trace, and the repetition of such incidents on a global scale should under no circumstances be allowed.