Worst oil spill in history

For nearly six weeks now anywhere between 800, 000 to four million litres of oil have been flooding the Gulf of Mexico daily. British Petroleum, the company responsible for this tragedy is offering the lowest estimate. This is the worst oil spill in U.S. history, and it shows no sign of stopping.

Oil slicks off Gulf of Mexico.The spill began on April 20 when an explosion rocked the “deepwater horizon,” an offshore oilrig jointly operated by BP, Transocean Ltd., and Halliburton. Two days later the oilrig sank, and a broken pipe, 5,000 feet below the surface started spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out entire ecosystems.

BP, and the other companies are now facing criminal negligence charges, but this hasn't stopped the oil from washing ashore in beaches, marshes, and fishing areas across Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida. Although BP claimed in its application for this project that it could quickly contain a spill much larger than this one, all of BP's attempts to plug the well have failed thus far, and they are now suggesting that they won't be able to stop the oil from spewing into the sea until August.

BP is under fire for deliberately choosing the riskier option for sealing the well before the blast occurred, according to a report in the New York Times. In order to save money, BP officials chose to use a casing pipe that had a higher risk of leaking gas. Workers on the rig who survived said that “hours before the explosion gases were leaking through the cement which had been set in place by Halliburton.” Investigators have said these leaks were the likely cause of the explosion that sunk the rig, and unleashed devastation on Gulf Coast marine life and communities.

BP CEO Tony Hayward is enraging locals for disputing their evidence of underwater oil plumes, for arguing that the illness in oil spill clean-up workers isn't linked to the toxic working environment but that they have food poisoning, and for making comments downplaying the devastation such as “amount of oil being spilt is tiny compared to the amount of water in the ocean.”

Many financial analysts are predicting that BP will never recover from this disaster, as the cleanup costs and ensuing lawsuits will bankrupt the company. President Obama has also halted all new offshore oil projects for the time being. Environmental scientists are warning that once hurricane season arrives there is the possibility of oil raining down on large areas of the southern U.S. further contaminating food supplies, fresh water, and ecosystems on land.