Background on Oil Spills
Causes and Response
The Deepwater Horizon incident involves a deepwater drilling platform approximately 50 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana. An explosion and subsequent fire damaged the rig, which capsized and sank on April 22, 2010, after burning for hours. It is unclear how much of the estimated 700,000 gallons (approximately 16,700 barrels) of No. 2 fuel onboard burned before it sank. The rig is owned by Transocean and under contract to BP. Amount of Oil When we talk about oil spills, how much oil are we talking about? Quite a lot: The United States uses about 700 million gallons of oil every day….
