BBC News Timeline

BP Oil Spill

On 20 April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of
Mexico, killing 11 workers and causing an oil spill that soon became the worst
environmental disaster in US history.

Here is a chronology of events in the months since, as BP has struggled to

stem the leak and oil has washed ashore along the Gulf Coast, from the
fragile Louisiana wetlands to the white sand beaches of Florida.

20 April: An explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of
Mexico, 52 miles (84 km) south-east of Venice, Louisiana, kills 11 workers.
Operator Transocean, under contract for BP, says it had no
warning of trouble ahead of the blast.

The rig was drilling in about 5 000 ft (1 525 m) of water, pushing the
boundaries of deepwater drilling technology.

22 April: The Deepwater Horizon sinks to the bottom of the Gulf after burning
for 36 hours, raising concerns of a catastrophic oil spill.

A Coast Guard official says the Macondo well, which the rig had been drilling,
could be releasing up to 8 000 barrels per day.

23 April: The Coast Guard says it had no indication that oil was
leaking from the well 5 000 ft below the surface of the Gulf.

26 April: In a reverse, officials reveal the well is leaking an estimated 1 000

barrels of oil per day and warn of environmental disaster.

Meanwhile, BP sends undersea robots to the wellhead in an unsuccessful

effort to activate the blowout preventer, a piece of heavy kit mounted on top of
the well to stem the flow of oil.

[from a different part of the BBC website:]

The BBC reported that in 2009, BP PLC was fined a record $87m for failing
to improve safety conditions following a massive explosion that killed 15
people at its Texas City refinery.

But the US Mineral Management Services found no violations on the

Deepwater Horizon rig when it carried out routine inspections in February,
March and April this year.

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28 April: The US Coast Guard warns the oil leak could become the worst oil
spill in US history.

29 April: The US Coast Guard sets fire to patches of spilled oil in an effort to
prevent the slick from reaching the vulnerable Louisiana coastal wetlands.

President Barack Obama pledges “every single available resource”, including

the military, to help in the response effort.

30 April: Oil from the leaking well begins washing ashore in Louisiana. Soon
fragile coastal wetlands are inundated with thick, brown mud.

President Barack Obama’s administration bans oil drilling in new areas off the
US coast pending investigations into the cause of the BP spill. Before the spill,
Mr. Obama had said he would allow new offshore drilling.

2 May: President Obama makes his first trip to the Gulf Coast and says BP is
responsible for the leak and for paying for its clean-up.

“We’re dealing with a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental

disaster”, he says.

“The oil that is still leaking from the well could seriously damage the economy
and the environment of our Gulf states. And it could extend for a long time. It
could jeopardise the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who call this place
home.”

8 May: BP’s effort to place a giant metal box atop the leaking well to contain
the leak fails when ice crystals accumulate inside the box and engineers are
forced to remove it.

Meanwhile, officials revise the estimate of the leak’s rate upward to 5 000
barrels per day.

10 May: BP Officials consider using debris, including golf balls and rubber
tyres, to plug the leaking wellhead, a manoeuvre known as the “junk shot”.
They also ready a “top hat” – a metal dome – to be placed over the leak.

Meanwhile, BP reveals the oil spill has cost the company $350m (£233m) so
far.

11 May: At a series of congressional hearings, BP, Transocean and

Halliburton, the three companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon
drilling operations, all blame each other for the disaster.

14 May: Researchers who have analysed underwater video from the leak site
estimate as many as 70 000 barrels of oil per day are leaking into the Gulf,
with a margin of error of plus or minus 20%, significantly higher than previous
estimates.

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BP tries to thread a tube into the broken wellhead in an effort to collect some
of the leaking oil in surface ships.
Meanwhile, President Obama condemns the “ridiculous spectacle” of the
companies trading blame while oil spews from the well.

19 May: Oceanographers say oil from the leak has entered the ocean current
– the “loop current” – that could carry it towards Florida and potentially up the
US east coast.

26 May: BP prepares to plug the leaking well with heavy drilling mud, a
procedure called a “top kill”. The attempt is declared a failure three days later.
28 May: Obama visits the Gulf Coast again and declares “the buck stops with
me”.

30 May: Carol Browner, President Obama’s adviser on energy policy, says

the spill is the worst environmental disaster in US history.

2 June: The US announces a criminal enquiry into the BP oil spill.

4 June : BP places a cap, called the “lower marine riser package”, atop the
leaking wellhead. The cap allows the company to pipe much of the oil and gas
leaking from the well to ships on the surface.
President Obama takes a third trip to the region.

6 June: [this entry is from a different part of the BBC website]

The oil risks affecting some of the famous white beaches of Florida, whose
economy is heavily dependent on tourism.
One-third of the Gulf's federal waters remain closed to fishing, and the
spill has killed and injured birds and marine animals.
"These waters are my backyard, my life," boat captain Dave Marino from
Myrtle Grove, Louisiana, told AP news agency. "It's a nightmare. It looks
like it's going to be wave after wave of it and nobody can stop it."
The oil has steadily spread east, and there are fears it could devastate the
shoreline with the hurricane season coming up.
BP, whose share price has dropped by a third since the accident, has been
coming under fire for spending a reported $50m on TV advertising to
improve its image while the crisis was still going on.
BP says it has spent more than $1bn so far on clean-up and containment
efforts since the Deepwater Horizon rig accident

8 June: Admiral Thad Allen, the commander of the US response, says clean-
up of the oil-stricken Gulf could take years.
Meanwhile, President Obama says he has been consulting with experts so he
can learn “whose ass to kick” in the matter.
The US government says underwater oil plumes have travelled as far as 40
miles from the site of the leaking well.

10 June: The US Geological Survey estimates the oil flow at as many as

40 000 barrels per day before a cap was put on the well on 3 June. BP
announces it is collecting 15 800 barrels per day from the well.

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12 June: Responding to complaints in the British media of an anti-British tone
to his remarks, President Obama tells UK Prime Minister David Cameron that
his criticism of BP has nothing to do with national identity.

15 June: President Obama addresses the nation from the Oval Office,
vowing, “We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused”.

17 June: BP announces it will place $20bn in a fund to compensate

victims of the oil spill and says it will not pay a shareholder dividend this year.

18 June: BP chief executive Tony Hayward receives a tongue-lashing at

a hearing in the US Congress. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House
Committee on Energy and Commerce, says BP’s “complacency” before the
20 April rig explosion was “astonishing”.

22 June: A federal judge blocks the Obama administration’s six-month ban on

deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, saying the ban cannot be justified.
The administration quickly issues another ban with revised terms.
Meanwhile, BP hands day-to-day control of the response to Bob Dudley,
replacing chief executive Tony Hayward, who had been widely criticised
foir his insensitive remarks on the spill.

5 July: BP says the oil spill response has cost the company $3.12bn
(£2bn), including the cost of containing the spill and cleaning up the oil,
and the cost of drilling relief wells. The figure also includes $147m paid
out in compensation to some of those affected by the spill.
6 July: Oil from the spill reaches Texas, meaning it has affected all five US
Gulf Coast states. Officials said it was unclear whether the oil had drifted
hundreds of kilometres from the leak site to the Texas shore or had fallen
from ships taking part in the clean-up operation.

10 July: BP begins a bid to place a tighter-fitting cap atop the leaking

wellhead. The company warns that oil will flow freely while the caps are being
exchanged, but says it has brought in 400 oil-skimming ships to deal with the
increased flow.

14 July: Admiral Thad Allen says a relief well, which officials and BP have
said is the only way permanently to plug the well, has come within 5ft (1.5m)
of the leaking well bore.

15 July: With the new cap in place, BP says it has temporarily shut off the oil
flow in order to test the integrity of the well. President Obama hails this as a
“positive sign”.

19 July: Admiral Allen tells BP he is concerned about a “detected seep” on

the sea floor near the well and other “undetermined anomalies”. He said that if
methane was found to be seeping from the sea floor, oil might also be leaking.

22 July: Dozens of vessels, including the rig drilling a relief well to

permanently block the damaged well, are ordered to leave the site as Tropical

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Storm Bonnie approaches. BP warns that the final operation to plug the well
could be delayed by up to two weeks by the storm. The capped well is to
remain unmonitored for several days.
Meanwhile, BP says it has been given permission to prepare for a “static kill”
– pumping mud into the top of the well through the new cap – a step viewed
as an intermediate measure. The firm would need final approval from the US
to carry it out.
The BBC learns that BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward, who has faced
widespread criticism over his handling of the spill, is negotiating the terms of
his exit from his post.

25 July: Ships involved in BP’s effort to secure the blown-out oil well prepare
to resume work after a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico weakened. Coast
Guard chief Admiral Thad Allen says the storm put back efforts to drill a relief
well by 7 to ten days.

26 July: The BBC reveals that 53-year-old BP chief executive

Tony Hayward will receive a year’s salary plus benefits,
together worth more than £1m, when he steps down. He will
also be entitled to draw an annual pension of £600 000 once
he reaches the age of 55.

27 July: BP confirms that chief executive Tony Hayward will leave his post by
mutual agreement in October, but he is likely to retain a position in the
company. BP plans to nominate him as a non-executive director of its Russian
joint-venture, TNK-BP.
Mr. Hayward’s American colleague, Bob Dudley, who has taken charge of the
clean-up operation, will replace him.
Meanwhile, the oil giant’s second quarter earnings are published, showing
losses of $17bn for the three months between April and June – a UK record.
The company says it has set aside $32.2bn (£20.8bn) to cover the costs
linked to the Gulf of Mexico spill.

28 July: US scientist say the oil from the well has cleared from the sea
surface faster that expected, 100 days after the disaster began.

2 August: The US Environmental Protection Agency says in a study the

dispersant used after the spill is no more toxic than the oil alone. There had
been concerns raised by congressional investigators that dispersant may
have been more widely used than the government ordered.

3 August: The US government says the oil spill is officially the biggest leak
ever, with 4.9 million barrels of oil leaked before the well was capped last
month. Scientists said only a fifth of the leaking oil – around 800 000 barrels –
was captured during the clean-up operation.

4 August: The US government says three-quarters of the oil spilled in the

Gulf has been cleaned up or broken down by natural forces.

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9 August: BP announces that the total cost to it of the oil spill so far has
reached £6.1bn (£3.8bn). The total includes the cost of the spill response,
containment, relief well drilling, and cementing up of the damaged well. It also
includes grants to the Gulf states hit by the spill and $319m paid out in
compensation to some of those affected by the spill.

16 August: The US announces that future applications for deepwater

offshore drilling will require an environmental assessment, ending a practice
that allowed BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig to drill with little scrutiny. The White
House said decision-making must be “fully-informed” by knowledge of any
potential environmental consequences.

19 August: A study published in a leading scientific journal confirms the

presence of a toxic chemical residue one kilometre below the surface of the
Gulf of Mexico, but says it amounts to just 0.1% of the total amount spilled.

3 September: The blowout preventer that failed to stop the explosion on the
Deepwater Horizon rig is removed from the stricken Gulf of Mexico oil well by
BP. The 300-ton device will be examined as part of the enquiry into the leak of
206m gallons of oil into the Gulf. Meanwhile, the cost of the oil spill has risen
to $8bn (£5.2bn), BP says – a rise of some $2bn in the past month alone.

5 September: Thad Allen, the US coastguard official overseeing the clean-up

operation, says the BP oil well at the centre of the leak poses “no further risk”
to the environment, despite the final stages of an operation to pump concrete
into a relief well remaining unfinished.

8 September: In its own internal report into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill – the
first to be published since the disaster – BP spreads the blame for the 11 April
explosion and resulting leak. In a 193-page report BP accepts responsibility
in part for the disaster, but also blames other companies working on the
well.

17 September: BP pumps cement to seal the damaged well after it was

intercepted by a relief well.

19 September: The ruptured well is finally sealed and “effectively dead”, says
Thad Allen, the top US federal official overseeing the disaster.

Sources: URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10656239

Also : http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/8642518.stm
and
www.bbc.co.uk/news/10248409