BP and the Gulf Oil Spill

The research focuses on the BP Oil Spill Tragedy, which took place as BP's Deepwater Horizon bohring plant exploded in the Gulf, eightsy kilometers from Louisiana.
The emissions caused a lot of problems on the Mexican Gulf coast of Louisiana. As such, at a press meeting in New Orleans on 10 a.m. Carlos Rodriguez, Global Environmental Policy Director of BP Headquarters in Housto Texas, received an appeal from the Vice President of the Organization to interview Julio Jonas about the waste.
Purpose
The study seeks to find out both short and long-term environmental, socioeconomic and political impacts of the Oil Spill Disaster as well as the measures used, their shortcomings and best solution for the disaster.Short termImmediately after the explosion, BP crew cut the fractured pipe and sealed it to contain the spill and used dispersers to break the oil spill. Long-termThe spill impacted negatively on the coastal marine, sea and groundwater ecosystem, stretching over 3,000 kilometers along the coastline. The spill threatened employment and revenue from both fishing and tourism sectors as well as the pension fund (Robyn). For example, BP contributes almost 10% of dividends that supported pension schemes in Britain.BP lost 34% of its value, $990m in cleanup costs and a drop in its share prices from 665.4 to 429.75 pence. The spill affected diplomatic relations between America and Britain. American administration accused United Kingdom of failing to monitor BP whose headquarter was in the United Kingdom. Environmentalists in the United States charged Obama’s administration for exempting BP’s Mexican Gulf oil drilling from environmental impact assessment and study (Juliet).Alternative solutions The BP applied some ways to provide solutions that would contain the situation and minimize the effects such as;Capping the damaged wellBP lowered a cap onto the lower sections of the marine riser package to cover the blowout preventer as a means of reducing the amount of oil gushing out.AdvantageThe cap collected 15, 000 oil barrels, reducing oil spills from the leaking blowout preventer.Disadvantage The cap barely collected half the amount that the exploded drill was releasing daily hence was not the best containment method.Sand barrier constructionBP planned on paying for the creation of six sand barriers off the Louisiana Coast to prevent the slick from affecting the fragile wetland ecosystem as the last option (BP and the Gulf Oil Disaster, making tough choices)Advantage The six sand barriers would join a series of other natural islands and form a 50-mile barrier thus protect the fragile wetlands, and sandy shores form the oil slick. Disadvantage The cost of constructing the sand barriers (approximate $360m) would increase BPs’ financial constraints, affected its profits and resulted in Fitch downgrading BP from an AA+ to AA company due to increase in BP’s financial risks poor business profile.Recommendation The best solution would be drilling two other relief wells to permanently stop the leak, offering a long lasting solution to the oil leak since the short-term measures failed to control the leakage.Action stepAfter an accident such as the oil rig explosion, there is need to hold the press conference to enlighten the public and take responsibility.Use any short-term mitigation measures in place such as cutting off and sealing the fractured pipes and chemical dispersers to break down the oil, pumping mud and clay to into the blowout preventer (Top Kill procedure) to stem the flow of the oil to contain the situation.Long-term approaches which could be an extended term such as cutting the riser pipes, lowering cups over the cut riser pipes and connect flexible riser pipes to the surface vessels to collect the spilling oil would minimize the effects. Construction of sand barriers to prevent the slick from reaching the fragile wetland ecosystem along the coastal regions A permanent solution such as drilling two relief valves to stop the leakage permanently is vital to solving the problem.In conclusion, oil spill along the Mexican gulf had adverse environmental, political and socioeconomic impacts hence the need to offer the long-term and permanent solution to avert such consequences.Work citedBP and the Gulf Oil Disaster, Making Tough Choices. 2017,Juliet, Eilperin. “U.S Exempted BP’s Gulf Of Mexico Drilling from Environmental Impact Study”, 2010.Robyn Bresnahan, “Oil Spill Stress Therapy for Louisiana Fishermen”, 2010. BBC. 2017.