(147f) Deepwater Horizon Incident and Response: Applying the Learning

The Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire on 20th April 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico cost eleven lives, and the resulting oil spill impacted the Gulf Coast communities and environment. The subsequent multi-agency response was unprecedented in its scale and technical complexity, involving about 48,000 people across 5 States and innovative techniques carried out for the first time in water depths of approximately 5000 feet.

The learning from the incident investigation and response have been used to enhance systems and capabilities, including:

Enhanced technical requirements for well equipment and procedures, as well as measures to further strengthen contractor oversight

Innovative capping, containment and relief well techniques, together with relevant surveillance and monitoring for difficult and complex situations

Enhanced and extended capabilities in oil spill response and crisis management.

BP is contributing knowledge and experience to the wider industry efforts to embed the learning, such as those through API, OGP/IPIECA and OSPRAG. The new insights gained have also been used to further enhance and accelerate change across the entire company, and to continue to build the top to bottom focus on safety and risk management.