Risk Assessment: Tools, Techniques, and Their Applications

4.2 Deep Water Horizon

In the late spring and summer of 2010, the United States was dealing with one of the worst oil spills to date (6–8). It occurred in the Gulf of Mexico and involved the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform. The Deepwater Horizon was an offshore oil platform owned by Transocean Ltd (Transocean). The rig was drilling within the Macondo Prospect oil field approximately 50 miles southeast of Mississippi in approximately 5000 ft of water. The Deepwater Horizon was considered an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, column-stabilized, semisubmersible mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) and could operate in waters of up to 8000-ft deep. Semisubmersibles are rigs that have platforms with hulls, columns, or pontoons that have sufficient buoyancy to cause the structure to float, but with weight sufficient enough to keep the structure upright. The Deepwater Horizon housed 126 workers, and its task was to drill wells, extract and process oil and natural gas from the Gulf of Mexico, and export the products to shore. As with any large venture, there are several principle players in an oil exploration and development process. The rig was owned by Transocean, but the principal developer of the Macondo Prospect oil field was British Petroleum Oil Company (BP). The Horizon had been leased to BP on a 3-year contract for deployment in the Gulf of Mexico following its construction. On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon and its subsequent sinking 2 days later ...