The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion was the April 20, 2010, explosion and subsequent fire on the Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU), which was owned and operated by Transocean and drilling for BP in the Macondo Prospect oil field about 40 miles (60 km) southeast off the Louisiana coast. The explosion and subsequent fire resulted in the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon and the deaths of 11 workers; 17 others were injured. The same blowout that caused the explosion also caused a massive offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the world, and the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.
1.On 22 April, two days after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, an oil leak was discovered when an oil slick began to spread at the former rig site.
http://www.thejournal.ie/oil-spill-photos-1395865-Apr2014/

2. Originally, BP reported that no oil was escaping from the well but, on 24 April, the Coast Guard confirmed that there was a “serious spill” occurring.

3.With no oil reaching the shores yet, Beltra contracted a plane to take him over the Gulf. Even that task was difficult, with planes barred from numerous areas and unable to fly below 3,000 feet.

4.Soon he found plenty of oil, with 62,000 barrels flowing from the leak per day.

5.Meanwhile BP was working to stem the spill. The company sent underwater robots to try to activate the well’s defunct blowout preventer safety valve, but this failed.

6.Next, BP tried placing a “containment dome” over the largest leak and piping the oil to a storage vessel. That method failed as well.

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7.In mid-May, BP engineers successfully inserted a tube to begin capturing some of the oil, which was then transferred to a drill ship on the surface.