Oil Spills and Technological Failures

The recent oil spill within the Gulf of Mexico continues to moan on and has caused unparalleled environmental damage thus far. It seems that ignorance and complacency can be cited as the main reasons for the explosion of The Deepwater Horizon in the first instance and the shocking failure to stop the resultant leak. Transocean had blindly drilled the deepest oil well ever recorded at 35,055 feet measured depth. The challenges faced when drilling extremely deep wells are huge; the pressures are greater, the temperature of the oil is higher, and the stresses on the metals involved are greater. Although the oil industry is developing increasingly advanced technology to deal with issues relating to deep water drilling, it is practically impossible to solve every problem that may arise through computer simulations. BP was simply not prepared for the consequences of operating a well of absurdly low depth.

Although the vast majority of oil spills occur accidentally as a result of transporting oil, a significant number occur at the drilling stage. Throughout history, oil spills have frequently occurred as a result of ineffectual technology and people taking uninformed risks. The first major oil spill within mainland USA occurred as long a go as 14th March 1910 in Kern County, California. The incident known as 'the Lakeview Gusher' spewed 9 million barrels of crude oil over a period of 18 months forming a vast lake of oil. Gushers were symbolic of oil exploration during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The lack of blowout preventers meant that high-pressure reservoirs could not be controlled. When high pressure zones were breached, oil would travel up the well at a rapid rate, forcing out the drill piece and creating a gusher. Not only were gushers dangerous, they were extremely wasteful and environmentally damaging. In the case of the Lakeview Gusher, almost half of this oil was recovered from the ground. Fortunately, the environmental impact of the Lakeview Gusher was minimal as the surrounding land was mostly sagebrush and dirt.

The lack of environmental awareness and technological incapability could almost excuse the gushers of the late 19^th and early 20^th but what about those which have occurred more recently? On 3^rd June 1979, the 2 mile deep exploratory well, IXTOC I, blew out in the Bahia de Campeche, 600 miles south of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico. A loss of drilling mud circulation was the cause of the blowout. The oil and gas blowing out of the well ignited and subsequently the platform caught fire. The burning platform collapsed into the wellhead area hampering attempts to control the blowout. 3.3 million barrels of oil spewed into the Gulf and it was over 10 months before the well was capped.

In both the recent Deepwater Horizon and IXTOC I incidents, the blowout preventers failed. Respondents to the IXTOC I disaster initially tried to plug the leak using techniques that didn't work. 31 years later, the respondents to the Deepwater Horizon disaster would use similar techniques which again failed to work. It is shocking to learn that clean up methods have not advanced over the past 31 years and we still continue to drill for oil without the ability to fully master these techniques and effectively deal with consequences of oil spills. Despite strong opposition to drilling and the push towards the use of renewable energy, oil remains the primary source from which we obtain energy. The depletion of shallow oil wells mean that the drilling of deeper wells will become more common and companies such as BP are taking more risks to extract oil without investing in technologies that will act to improve drilling techniques and improve clean up methods.

The Gulf of Mexico incident should serve as an example, and an incident of this scale should never be allowed to happen again. The backward priorities of self serving Oil companies need to change. Priorities have been focused on how to extract more oil for greater profits. There are no such comparable priorities for drilling and cleanup methods. It is about time Oil companies revaluate their priorities and invest in technological techniques that are as proficient as possible before drilling. The environmental destruction of the planet is a price that is far too high to pay.