Deepwater Horizon Explosion Research Articles

Share market reaction to the BP oil spill and the US government moratorium on exploration

The shares of BP plc and its subcontractors were rocked when the financial markets discovered the true impact of the Deepwater Horizon explosion as reported in the Wall Street Journal on 22 April 2010. While we track the impact of the disaster on share prices of the key participants, perhaps the most damaging response to the disaster was the introduction of the Gulf oil exploration moratorium on deep water drilling. We find that this adversely affected a range of firms in the oil and gas industry, extending the economic impact of the disaster well beyond BP plc and its subcontractors.

Transparency and Business in International Law — Governance between Norm and Technique

This essay considers transparency and business in international law as a matter of the dynamic tension between norm and technique in the management of systems and the masses of the population they serve. It is divided into two parts. After this Introduction, Part II critically examines transparency in international and transnational regulatory and governance regimes. It considers both hard and soft law frameworks. Section II. A considers public sources of transparency regulation, concentrating on two: the OECD framework and the recently endorsed Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights. Sections II.B through II.D examine transparency and governance beyond the state, considering (i) hybrid governance efforts represented by the ISO and Global Compact systems (Section II.B), (ii) private third party non-corporate governance regimes represented by the GRI and third-party certification programs (Section II.C), and (iii) private corporate governance transparency regimes (Section II.D). Part III then examines transparency in action. Part III.A explores environmental disclosure by BP before and after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill of 2010. Section III.B examines Apple, Inc.’s transparency efforts in the context of managing the labor issues of its supply chains. Section III.C critically examines transparency as regulation and action within the framework developed in this Introduction, focusing particularly on the way in which the characteristics of transparency as norm, technique and property fundamentally shape both its character and the parameters within which reform is possible.

Seasonal Monitoring of Hydrocarbon Degraders in Alabama Marine Ecosystems Following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Following the Deepwater Horizon explosion and crude oil contamination of a marsh ecosystem in AL in June 2010, hydrocarbon-degrader microbial abundances of aerobic alkane, total hydrocarbon, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) degraders were enumerated seasonally. Surface sediment samples were collected in October and December of 2010 and in April and July of 2011 along 40–70-m transects from the high tide to the intertidal zone including Spartina alterniflora-vegetated marsh, seagrass (Ruppia maritima)-dominated sediments, and nonvegetated sediments. Alkane and total hydrocarbon degraders in the sediment were detected, while PAH degraders were below detection limit at all locations examined during the sampling periods. The highest counts for microbial alkane degraders were observed at the high tide line in April and averaged to 8.65 × 105 of cells/g dry weight (dw) sediment. The abundance of alkane degraders during other months ranged from 9.49 × 103 to 3.87 × 104, while for total hydrocarbon degraders, it ranged between 5.62 × 103 and 1.14 × 105 of cells/g dw sediment. Pore water nutrient concentrations (NH 4 + , NO 3 − , NO 2 − , and PO 4 3− ) showed seasonal changes with minimum values observed in December and April and maximum values in October and July. Concentrations of total petroleum hydrocarbons in sediments averaged 100.4 ± 52.4 and 141.9 ± 57.5 mg/kg in January and July, 2011, respectively. The presence of aerobic microbial communities during all seasons in these nearshore ecosystems suggests that an active and resident microbial community is capable of mineralizing a fraction of petroleum hydrocarbons.

Transparency and Business in International Environmental Law

Transparency has been an important element in the construction of hard and soft law and norm regimes in the international sphere. This chapter considers transparency and business in international environmental law. It is divided into five sections. Section A considers conventional sources of international environmental law for its transparency effects, looking at both hard law and soft law frameworks. Section B examines other potentially applicable transparency rules, principally the recent efforts at transnational regulation of economic actors. It concentrates on two examples — the OECD framework and the recently endorsed Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights. Section C examines transparency at the intersection of domestic and international law. It concentrates on the environmental transparency effects of extraterritoriality, of the incorporation of international norms within domestic legal orders, and the internationalization of domestic rule frameworks. Section D then considers transparency and governance beyond the state. For that purpose three distinct regimes are identified and examined. The first are hybrid governance efforts — the ISO and Global Compact systems. The second are private non-corporate governance regimes, principally the GRI and product certification programs. Third, private corporate governance transparency regimes are examined. The potential and tensions in transparency are examined more closely in the context of environmental disclosure by BP during the time of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill of 2010, which also suggests both the possibilities and limits of domestic and international law, in its transparency aspects. The chapter ends with Section F’s consideration of miscommunication and coherence in moving toward the future of environmental transparency at the international sphere.

Characteristics of black carbon aerosol from a surface oil burn during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

[1] Black carbon (BC) aerosol mass mixing ratio and microphysical properties were measured from the NOAA P-3 aircraft during active surface oil burning subsequent to the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in April 2010. Approximately 4% of the combusted material was released into the atmosphere as BC. The total amount of BC introduced to the atmosphere of the Gulf of Mexico via surface burning of oil during the 9-week spill is estimated to be (1.35 ± 0.72) × 106 kg. The median mass diameter of BC particles observed in the burning plume was much larger than that of the non-plume Gulf background air and previously sampled from a variety of sources. The plume BC particles were internally mixed with very little non-refractory material, a feature typical of fresh emissions from fairly efficient fossil-fuel burning sources and atypical of BC in biomass burning plumes. BC dominated the total accumulation-mode aerosol in both mass and number. The BC mass-specific extinction cross-section was 10.2 ± 4.1 and 7.1 ± 2.8 m2/g at 405 and 532 nm respectively. These results help constrain the properties of BC emissions associated with DWH and other large spills.

Site-Specific Theatre and Political Engagement across Space and Time: The Psychogeographic Mapping of British Petroleum in Platform's And While London Burns

This essay focuses on Platform's audio-walk And While London Burns (2006), which generates a new map of London by means of the "carbon web," or the complex network of companies and supporting industries on which British Petroleum (BP) relies. The production—and its message about the urgency of halting climate change—has since accrued additional layers of meaning, given the disaster of the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig explosion and spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Addressing the shifting historical and political frame of reference that has surrounded the production at three different times, I analyze the production's use of psychogeography to render critical thinking into physicality through a self-motivated, multi-sensory engagement with the cityscape that generates a visceral response. And While London Burns deploys the paradox of forcing participants to perform changes and make their own decisions in spite of the potentially isolating and personal medium of the audio-walk.

Insurance of Techno-Organizational Ventures and Procedural Ethics: Lessons from the Deepwater Horizon Explosion

Hazardous operational consequences of unethical behavior in high-risk projects can be traced back to inadequate relationships between businesses and the insurance industry. The communication of blame, as a consequence of major industrial accidents like the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, and the relevance of this communication of blame for subsequent insurance litigation, show that the awareness of the relationship between unethical behavior resulting in irresponsible procedural action and deficient loss-prevention practices is a significant component of risk consciousness. The awareness of ethical origins of project risks could alter the methods of design and monitoring of insurance contracts for risky techno-organizational ventures.

Gulf Oil Spill Commission Report Calls for Major Drilling Safety Reforms

The BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and the resulting oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year were “foreseeable and preventable,” according to the report of a presidentially appointed commission, issued on 11 January, that recommended significant changes in U.S. government and industry practices to avoid future oil spill disasters. Among the recommendations of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling are that Congress and the Obama administration create an independent safety agency within the Department of the Interior (DOI) to oversee all aspects of offshore drilling safety and that the oil and gas industry establish a “safety institute” to develop and enforce safety standards.

The BP Oil Spill Fund: What Would Posner Do?

After the Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP appointed Kenneth Feinberg to set up a compensation fund, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. This paper analyzes the GCCF through the lens of law & economics. Part II explains the GCCF and explores the problem of determining the beneficiary schedule. Part III introduces the classic Law and Economics approach, in particular through the eyes of one of its most prominent advocates, Judge Richard Posner. Part IV applies a Law and Economics approach to the beneficiary question, asking how Judge Posner would distribute payments from the fund. Part V addresses potential critiques to this application, as well as Judge Posner’s likely responses to these critiques.

SAFETY BOARD MAY HALT OIL RIG PROBE

THE CHEMICAL SAFETY & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is objecting to limitations imposed on it by federal agencies leading the investigation of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. Last week,...

AFTERMATH OF DISASTER

ECOSYSTEMS IN and around the Gulf of Mexico were hard-hit by the Deepwater Horizon explosion that spewed millions of gallons of oil into the water for 87 days from April to July. Now, the Gulf ’s environment is beginning to recover, according to researchers speaking at the American Chemical Society national meeting in Boston last month. At a jointly sponsored symposium on the Gulf gusher, scientists shared results that were mainly, but not completely, optimistic about the residual environmental consequences of the disaster. They discussed the lingering effects of the massive spill on marshy shorelines, the safety of commercially caught shrimp and fish, and how marine creatures living on the dark bottom of the Gulf are faring in the wake of the disaster. “The amount of oil is staggering,” said Edward B. Overton, professor emeritus of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University. Official estimates are that the gusher released more than 200 million gal into ...

The BP Oil Spill: Could Software be a Culprit?

No one yet knows what caused the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion that killed 11 workers and poured millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. But considering the fact that offshore oil rigs comprise dozens of complex subsystems that use or are controlled by software, it is possible a software failure could have contributed to this disaster.

Six elements of improved recordkeeping

Recordkeeping is critical to the labor and environmental regulation of extractive industries in the United States. Two disasters that occurred weeks apart in April 2010 – the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in West Virginia and the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in offshore Louisiana – demonstrate how faulty recordkeeping impacted regulatory failures. Many of these recordkeeping issues were not apparent until after the investigations took place, and influenced the prosecutions after the disasters. An extensive document review of the pre-disaster inspections and post-disaster investigative reports demonstrates that recordkeeping is consistently marginalized as a major force in effective regulation. Mandated recordkeeping is often derided as bureaucratic paperwork, but it is an essential part of a robust regulatory environment by providing evidence that regulations are being followed when inspectors are not onsite. This review concludes with several recommendations to strengthen the role of recordkeeping in effective labor and environmental regulation.