BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Events

2010 Apr 20 Offshore Oil Rig 'Deepwater Horizon' Explodes Off the Gulf of Mexico
Helicopters, ships and an aeroplane searched the waters off Louisiana's coast today for at least 11 workers missing after an explosion and fire that left an offshore drilling platform til...
2010 Apr 23 Coast Guard Calls Off Search for Survivors of Deepwater Horizon Explosion
Rescuers are prepared to call off the search today for the 11 missing crew members of the sunken oil rig off the Louisiana coast, reports the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Meanwhile, crews ...
2010 Apr 25 Robot Submarines Deployed to Contain Gulf Oil Spill
Crews have been using a robot submarine to try to stop an oil leak nearly a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, but officials said late yesterday it would take at least another ...
2010 Apr 27 Coast Guard Officials Announce Possible 'Controlled Burn' to Contain Gulf Coast Oil Spill
"We fully understand that there are benefits and trade-offs" in torching the slick, the admiral co-ordinating federal operations told the New York Times. Birds and mammals will be "more t...
2010 Apr 27 Gulf Oil Spill Reaches the Size of Rhode Island
(NEWSER) – The oil spilling from a sunken rig in the Gulf of Mexico has grown to more than 1,800 square miles—an area larger than Rhode Island—but crews using a robot sub have yet to be a...
2010 Apr 28 Reports Surface of Government Regulator's Poor Record and Oil Rig's Lack of Safety Measure Following Disastrous Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
(NEWSER) – As the oil spill off Louisiana threatens to become one of the biggest in US history, Pro Publica would like to remind everyone that the federal agency charged with preventing s...
2010 Apr 29 Gulf Coast Oil Spill Reaches Shore
Crews scrambled to protect wetlands and fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp as oil began to wash ashore on the Gulf Coast last night. Officials warn that the spill from a BP rig—which is ...
2010 Apr 30 Rush Limbaugh Suggests Conspiracy Behind Oil Rig Explosion
Rush Limbaugh thinks the timing of the oil rig explosion is a little fishy: "What better way to head off more oil drilling, nuclear plants, than by blowing up a rig?" he asked on his last...
2010 May 2 President Obama Arrives in Louisiana to Assess Effects of Gulf Oil Spill
President Obama visited Louisiana this afternoon, seeing for himself the effects of the continuing oil spill and promising an "all-hands-on-deck" reaction, the Times-Picayune reports. "B...
2010 May 3 Former FEMA Chief Michael 'Brownie' Brown Accuses President Obama of Allowing Oil Spill to Worsen for Political Reasons
President Obama's doing a heckuva job in using the Gulf oil spill to further his anti-Big Oil agenda, according to former FEMA chief Michael Brown. Brown—whose handling of Hurricane Katri...
2010 May 4 Business and Environmental Lobbyists Rush to Capitol Amid Concern for Proposed Energy Bill Following Gulf Oil Spill
Energy reform advocates scrambled yesterday to rescue the bill that's been slogging its way through the Senate, but the Gulf oil spill appears to be the final, ironic nail in its coffin, ...
2010 May 4 Governor Schwarzenegger Drops Support for Offshore Drilling Following Gulf Oil Spill
Disturbing images of the Gulf oil spill have caused California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to change his mind about allowing new drilling for oil off the California coast. The governor wi...
2010 May 5 BP Deploys Chemical in Attempt to Disperse Gulf Oil Slick
The massive oil slick bobbing in the Gulf of Mexico still hasn't reached shore, thanks in part to the unprecedented doses of an oil-dispersing chemical that are being dropped on it. The s...
2010 May 5 Sarah Palin Attributes Gulf Oil Spill to Foreignness of British Petroleum
Sarah Palin is fired up about the Gulf Coast oil spill, and she's taking away a powerful lesson: Don't trust foreigners, like those tea-sippers over at British Petroleum. “Gulf: Learn fro...
2010 May 6 BP Crews Prepare Containment Dome to be Lowered Over Gulf Oil Leak
Crews prepared today to lower a 100-ton box they hoped would cut off most of the crude spewing from a blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico, the urgency of their task underscored by oil th...
2010 May 6 Gulf Oil Slick Reaches Chandeleur Islands Wildlife Refuge
Oil from the massive Gulf of Mexico slick has begun washing ashore in a wildlife preserve off the coast of Louisiana. Officials say there is "oiling all over" the uninhabited Chandeleur i...
2010 May 7 Containment Dome Almost in Place Over Leaking Undersea Oil Well
The big dome is nearly there. With the guidance of undersea robots, crews in the Gulf of Mexico are gingerly lowering the 100-ton concrete-and-steel box over a blown-out well on the ocean...
2010 May 8 BP Probe Reveals Oil Rig Explosion Caused by Methane Gas Bubble
The deadly blowout of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst thro...
2010 May 8 Ice Crystals Form Inside of Gulf Spill Containment Dome, Leading to Its Removal
Chief operating officer Doug Suttles said Saturday that he is not saying that the box has failed. But he did say what they tried Friday night did not work. He says they picked the box ...
2010 May 11 Halliburton, Transocean, and BP Blame One Another for Oil Spill at Senate Hearing
As expected, the leaders of the oil and oil service companies involved with the Gulf oil spill attempted to shift blame onto one another at a Senate hearing today. Executives from BP, Tra...
2010 May 11 Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Proposes Splitting Government Agency, Minerals Management Service, Following Gulf Oil Spill
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called for a plan to split the Minerals Management Service in two. One agency would be charged with inspecting oil rigs, investigating oil companies and enf...
2010 May 12 BP Lowers 'Top Hat', Second, Smaller Containment Dome Over Gulf Oil Spill
BP is trying the “if at first you don't succeed” method of oil spill containment, lowering a second, smaller box over its still-gushing underwater leak. The first box the company tried fa...
2010 May 12 BP Releases Video Footage of Undersea Oil Spill Following White House and Media Pressure
BP said the video was released only today because the it had not received a request for the video until Monday. In fact, ABC News and other news organizations made numerous requests over ...
2010 May 14 Computer Model Results Suggest More than a Third of Oil Slick Gone
The Deepwater Horizon disaster has led to the release of million of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, but figuring out where it all is has proven kind of hard. Roughly 4.6 million g...
2010 May 14 President Obama Criticizes 'Ridiculous Spectacle' of Oil Executives Shifting Blame
President Obama ripped into the companies involved in the Gulf oil spill today, deriding their finger-pointing before Congress as a "ridiculous spectacle." He also promised to end a cozy...
2010 May 14 Reports Surface that BP Allowed to Drill Without Assessing Threats to Endangered Species
The MMS's own biologists and engineers also say they were consistently ignored when they raised safety or environmental concerns, and pressured to change findings predicting an accident o...
2010 May 15 Scientists Find Enormous Oil Plumes Under Gulf Spill
It's not clear why the plumes are forming underwater as they are, but one theory is that the chemical dispersants now being used are at the root of it. In any event, they're depleting oxy...
2010 May 15 White House Insists BP Pay Oil Spill Cleanup Regardless of Cost
The White House's latest message to BP is a simple one: Talk is cheap, so you better pay up in the Gulf. Company officials have said a few times publicly that they were willing to cover a...
2010 May 18 Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Acknowledges Failure of Government Oversight in Gulf Oil Spill
Ken Salazar admitted today that the government should have had better standards in place on the devices built to prevent disasters on offshore oil wells. The interior secretary said he be...
2010 May 19 Scientists Criticize White House Response to Oil Spill
With heavy oil at last washing ashore in Louisiana, scientists are slamming the Obama administration for responding to the Deepwater Horizon spill too slowly, and not investigating enough...
2010 May 19 United States and Cuba Hold Rare Bilateral Talks to Discuss Protecting Gulf of Mexico from Oil Spills
The United States and Cuba are holding rare talks to discuss the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the State Department said today. The talks are the latest indication the growing ...
2010 May 20 BP Admits 5,000-Barrel Per Day Spillage Estimate Too Small
The amount of oil being captured is only a portion of the total because the company is catching oil from only one of two leaks. BP has also released a video that shows additional unquanti...
2010 May 20 US EPA Orders BP to Use Less Toxic Chemical in Oil Spill Cleanup
In a move that suggests the dispersants being dumped on the Gulf oil spill may not be so Earth-friendly, the EPA last night gave BP 24 hours to select a less toxic chemical and 72 hours t...
2010 May 21 EPA States Possible Ban of BP from Government Contracts Following Suspension of All Negotiations
Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency are considering whether to bar BP from receiving government contracts, a move that would ultimately cost the company billions in revenue a...
2010 May 22 President Obama Names Senator Bob Graham and Former EPA Administrator William K. Reilly to Gulf Oil Spill Panel
President Obama announced today that former Florida Sen. Bob Graham and former EPA Administrator William K. Reilly will lead a presidential commission investigating the Gulf of Mexico oil...
2010 May 24 Leaked Report Shows Inappropriate Behavior and Lack of Oversight by Government Oil Industry Regulators
Federal regulators responsible for oversight of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico allowed industry officials several years ago to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil — and then t...
2010 May 25 Philippe Cousteau, Jr. Dives into Gulf Oil Spill, Providing Underwater Footage of Pollution
Philippe Cousteau Jr, the grandson of famous marine biologist, Jacques Cousteau, recently scuba dived into an area of the Gulf that was affected by the spill and said it was an "absolute ...
2010 May 26 BP Begins 'Top Kill' Oil Spill Containment, Plugging Well with Mud and Cement
The "top kill" is under way. BP has begun pumping heavy mud into the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico in an attempt to seal it. Cement will follow. The top kill has never before been ...
2010 May 26 Obama Administration Announces Suspension of Arctic Ocean Drilling Following Gulf Spill Disaster
The Obama administration is suspending proposed exploratory drilling in the Arctic Ocean. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says in a report to be delivered to the White House on Thursday...
2010 May 27 MMS Chief Elizabeth Birnbaum Steps Down Amidst Oil Spill Crisis
The head of the troubled U.S. agency that oversees offshore drilling - which President Obama said was "plagued by corruption" at the beginning of his presidency - resigned under pressure ...
2010 May 29 BP Abandons 'Top Kill' Oil Containment Strategy
BP will now try anew by cutting the pipe that lies deep underwater and fitting a containment valve over the leak, an effort expected to take four to seven days. This time, it will be easi...
2010 May 30 Activists Descend Upon Streets of New Orleans to Express Discontent at Oil Cleanup
New Orleans residents are catching on, and suspicions that BP has no reliable plan other than drilling a relief well—which may not be complete until as late as August—are growing stronger...
2010 May 30 BP Turns to Undersea Robots and Containment Valves after Failure of 'Top Kill'
BP is hurriedly devising yet another mix of risky undersea robot maneuvers and containment devices to fight the worst oil spill in US history, after the most ambitious bid yet to stop the...
2010 Jun 1 Attorney General Eric Holder Announces Criminal Investigation into Gulf Oil Spill
Attorney General Eric Holder said today that federal authorities have opened criminal and civil investigations into the Gulf oil spill. The developments were expected, and the Los Angeles...
2010 Jun 2 BP Oil Spill Containment Effort Delayed by Saw Stuck in Pipe
The saw being used to cut through the pipe on the damaged oil well in the Gulf of Mexico has become stuck, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said at a press conference this morning, stalling th...
2010 Jun 2 Energy Secretary Steven Chu Strikes Down Calls to Use Nuclear Weapons to Seal Leaking Oil Well
Decades ago, the Soviet Union reportedly used nuclear blasts to successfully seal off runaway gas wells, inserting a bomb deep underground and letting its fiery heat melt the surrounding ...
2010 Jun 2 James Cameron Criticizes BP for Refusing his Help and Resources in Dealing with Gulf Oil Spill
Blockbuster king James Cameron's offer to help BP stem the flow of oil from a leaking Gulf of Mexico well was spurned by the oil giant, even though the director says he knows his way arou...
2010 Jun 3 National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Releases Computer Model Suggesting Ocean Currents will Carry Oil Spill out to Atlantic Ocean
The computer simulations indicate that, once the oil in the uppermost ocean has become entrained in the Gulf of Mexico’s fast-moving Loop Current, it is likely to reach Florida's Atlantic...
2010 Jun 3 Pipe Successfully Cut in Key Step Toward Halting Leak
Adm. Thad W. Allen, who is commanding the federal response to a spill that has been called the nation’s worst environmental disaster, told a news conference in Metairie, La. that the cut ...
2010 Jun 4 Oil Spill Reaches Florida Coast
Tar balls and oil have finally invaded Northwest Florida's pristine coastline, turning Pensacola and Navarre beaches into a spectacle of media frenzy and locals' "last swim" trips to the ...