Petrobras pipeline disaster in 2000. Explosion at the French chemical plant AZF in 2001. An explosion on a Pemex oil platform off the coast of Mexico in April of this year. The history of oil production is rich in disasters. But the largest accident with the most severe environmental consequences to date occurred in 2010. The Deepwater Horizon oil platform, operated by the British company BP in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded off the coast of the US state of Louisiana.

She drowned

On April 20, 2010, a powerful explosion occurred at the Deepwater Horizon, causing a large fire. In total, at the time of the incident, on a drilling platform the size of two football fields There were 126 people and about 2.6 million liters of petroleum products were stored. This figure alone gives an idea of ​​the scale of the disaster.

You can imagine the consequences, knowing that the fire lasted 36 hours, after which the platform sank, and oil flowed out of a well at a depth of 1500 meters in a continuous stream. According to some sources, this leak amounted to 5 thousand barrels per day (i.e. 700 tons of oil), according to others - up to 100 thousand (about 14 thousand tons).

They tried to fight the escaping oil in different ways: they fenced it off, burned it, collected it with the help of sorbents, covered the well with a huge protective dome. BP even organized a campaign to collect human and animal hair, which was stuffed into nylon bags and used as blotters to collect oil. The campaign unfolded on a large scale: according to the charitable organization Matter of Trust, 370 thousand salons around the world participated in the campaign, and 200 tons of hair and wool were received at collection points every day.

In the hair collection campaign, BP was quite successful. But the campaign to collect oil failed. As experts explain, the “spill and immediately collect” technology is not suitable a day after the accident - it sinks to the bottom and it is useless to install fences. Neither microorganisms that break down oil, nor sorbents simply could cope with such volumes of oil. And they failed. According to environmentalists, about 37 thousand tons of oil are hidden in the soil around the Macondo well, which is from 5 to 14% of the total volume of oil released. As the researchers note, this oil is still at the bottom, but it will gradually seep back into the water. This will lead to serious environmental consequences, since oil in the bottom layers of the sea disintegrates very slowly due to lack of oxygen.

What is the reason?

The accident on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform is recognized as one of the largest disasters in human history. It is compared to the collapse of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and is even called “oil Chernobyl.” Both disasters have one thing in common - the consequences of the crashes for a long time could not cope because such a scenario was not provided for in the project.

According to the head of the environmental company Greenpeace Russia, Vladimir Chuprov, today in the oil industry there are no technologies at all that 100% exclude the possibility of such disasters. And when they do occur, it turns out that there is no technology to eliminate the consequences of accidents of this scale.

And yet, BP had a chance to “prepare”, because experts, even before the collapse of the platform, argued that the death of the Deepwater Horizon was only a matter of time.

The oil platform was launched in February 2001. In the same year, it was leased to BP, which brought Deepwater Horizon to the Gulf of Mexico and 9 years later, in February 2010, began drilling a well in the Macondo field. Then the problems began: the drilling work was carried out in a hurry. And it’s understandable, because the platform cost BP half a million dollars every day, which means the company needed to quickly start mining and making money. They didn’t take one thing into account: in the event of a catastrophe, BP will face huge financial expenses and responsibility for liquidation of the consequences of the crash. But, as already mentioned, such a scenario was not included in the project.

Several organizations were involved in the investigation into the causes of the accident: the US Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of the Interior, the US Congress and the US Department of Justice. BP considered it its duty to conduct its own investigation into the causes of the accident. 50 specialists, led by Mark Bligh, BP's head of operational safety, were working to determine the cause of the disaster. As a result, BP published a report according to which main reason The platform crash became... the human factor. And just six reasons for “concern” were named. A more thorough report was made by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Resources Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) and the US Coast Guard. Of the 35 causes of the disaster, BP was the only culprit in 21, and in 8 the company was found to be partially at fault.

Perhaps BP was right, and the human factor really became one of the reasons for the death of Deepwater Horizon - in the pursuit of profit and in an attempt to reduce the costs of developing a well, the company neglected basic safety standards. Other causes include poor well design with insufficient barriers to oil and gas, unsuccessful cementing, and last-minute changes to the well development project.

Partial blame is admitted to the owners of the oil platform, Transocean Ltd., and Halliburton, which was involved in underwater cementing of the well.

Why is the Gulf of Mexico suffering?

So, the “human factor” of BP’s activities on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform turned, first of all, into a global environmental disaster. So global that in its scale this disaster eclipsed the crash of the Exxon Valdez tanker in Alaska, the Prestige ship in Spain, and most other accidents previously recognized as the largest oil spills in terms of scale.

In a few words, the consequences of the platform crash are as follows.

During the 152 days that oil continuously leaked from the damaged well, more than 5 million barrels entered the Gulf waters.

The waters of the Gulf of Mexico are known to be rich in commercial fish, oysters and shrimp, and nesting along the shores of the gulf rare species birds, and numerous tourists come to relax on the beaches of the bay. But the spilled oil even reached coastal reserves and marshes, and the coasts of several states from Florida to Louisiana were contaminated. The latter introduced an almost complete ban on fishing. And the beaches of other states have been closed to vacationers for several months. In addition, nearly 600 sea turtles, 100 dolphins, more than 6,000 birds were found dead, and several more next years Increased mortality among whales and dolphins persisted

But the greatest concern among scientists was the impact of the consequences of the accident on the climate-forming Gulf Stream. According to some estimates, the temperature of the current decreased by 10 degrees. The current began to break up into separate underwater flows. Some weather anomalies were noticed. And all this just during the oil spill after the death of the Deepwater Horizon. Of course, this can only be a coincidence, and experts have not come to a common conclusion on this issue. However, this fact still worries some scientists.

Who is to blame and what was done?

After the accident, thousands of lawsuits were filed in the courts, with BP and Transocean as the main defendants. The first to appeal to the courts were local fishermen, coastal property owners, real estate agencies and restaurateurs. In early 2012, they were joined by lawsuits from business owners and government organizations whose businesses suffered losses due to the oil spill. Shareholders of companies brought claims against BP, where the main plaintiffs were pension funds states of New York and Ohio. The reason for the lawsuits is “providing false information about the safety of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.”

BP and Transocean violated the law on protection clean water, which allowed the US Department of Justice to send a lawsuit to the Federal Court of the American city New Orleans(Louisiana). The American government demanded a fine from companies ranging from 1.1 to 4.3 thousand dollars for each barrel of leaked oil. And if Transocean pleaded guilty and paid almost $1.5 billion in fines, then BP representatives decided to “put the hurt on their head” and filed a lawsuit against Transocean in the federal court of New Orleans, accusing the contractor of poorly performed work and technical violations safety, which was the main cause of the accident. And if so, then, according to BP, Transocean is obliged to bear financial responsibility for eliminating the consequences of the disaster.

By the way, Transocean is not the only organization that fell under “ hot hand» VR. The company accused Cameron International of liability for failures of a blowout preventer installed at the well. And Halliburton was hit with a lawsuit alleging “fraud, negligence and concealment of facts about the materials used.” However, as federal judge Carl Barbier ruled, 67% of the blame for the accident lies with BP itself, and only 30% and 3% with Transocean and Halliburton, respectively. In 2012, a federal court in New Orleans issued a decision imposing a fine of $7.8 billion on BP. This is the amount of compensation that the court ordered BP to pay to 100,000 plaintiffs affected by the oil spill. However, according to company representatives, payment of this amount does not constitute an admission of guilt in the accident.

In February 2013, a new trial began in a New Orleans court regarding the accident in the Gulf of Mexico. Characters still the same - British BP, its partners and representatives of the American government, demanding payment of the maximum fine, i.e. 4.3 thousand dollars for each barrel of oil that fell into the water. The British company tried to challenge this claim and reduce the fine to 3 thousand per barrel. But the course of the investigation did not play into BP’s hands: it turned out that one of the company’s engineers, Kurt Meeks, tried to destroy correspondence that discussed important internal BP information. In particular, about the attempts of specialists to preserve the well after the accident. It also turned out that the oil producing company provided information that downplayed the amount of oil that leaked.

In 2014, the British government decided to intervene in the matter. In its statement, it called on the court to reconsider some of its decisions regarding the BP company, namely, to reduce the fine imposed on BP. And yet, the New Orleans court turned out to be inexorable and ruled that “the negligent or intentional actions of the British company led to the spill of 5 million barrels of oil in the Gulf,” which means that liability for such actions should be maximum.

Civil protest in GRAND ISLE, LOUISIANA. A symbolic “cemetery” dedicated to the species of flora and fauna that died as a result of the oil spill.
Photo: Katherine Welles

$13.7 billion is the price that the court ordered BP to pay for the lives of 11 people killed in the accident, for the largest environmental disaster in human history and for the enormous material damage suffered by businessmen and individuals.

Kristina Kuznetsova

In pursuit of oil, a person goes into the tundra, climbs mountains and conquers the seabed. But oil does not always give up without a fight, and as soon as a person loses his vigilance, “ black gold"turns into a real black death for all living things. This happened quite recently in the Gulf of Mexico, where the ultra-modern oil platform DeepWater Horizon dealt a crushing blow to nature and human pride.

Explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform: an easy way to destroy the environment

An object: oil platform DeepWater Horizon, 80 km off the coast of Louisiana (USA), Gulf of Mexico.

An ultra-deepwater oil drilling platform has been leased by BP to develop the promising Macondo field. The length of the platform reached 112 m, width - 78 m, height - 97.4 m, it went 23 meters under water and had a mass of over 32 thousand tons.

Victims: 13 people, 11 of them died during the fire, another 2 died during the liquidation of the consequences. 17 people received injuries of varying severity.

Source: US Coast Guard

Causes disasters

Major disasters do not have one single cause, as confirmed by the explosion of the DeepWater Horizon oil platform. This accident was the result of a whole chain of violations and technical faults. Experts say it was only a matter of time before a platform disaster occurred.

It is interesting that several parallel investigations into the causes of the disaster were carried out, which led to different conclusions. Thus, the report made by BP indicates only 6 main causes of the accident, and the main cause of the accident is the human factor. A more authoritative report made by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Resources Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) and the US Coast Guard already names 35 main reasons, and 21 of them are blamed entirely on BP.

So who is to blame for the DeepWater Horizon explosion and subsequent environmental disaster? The answer is simple - BP, which was chasing profit, and in this pursuit neglected basic safety rules and deep-sea drilling technologies. In particular, the well cementing technology was violated, and the specialists who arrived to analyze the cement were simply kicked out of the drilling site. Were also disabled important systems control and security, so no one knew what was really going on under the ocean floor.

The result was an explosion and fire on the platform, a colossal oil spill and the title of one of the largest environmental disasters in the entire history of civilization.

Chronicle of events

Problems on the platform began almost from the first day of its installation, that is, from the beginning of February 2010. The well was drilled in a hurry, and the reason is simple and banal: the DeepWater Horizon platform was leased by BP, and every day it cost half a million (!) dollars!

However, the real problems began in the early morning of April 20, 2010. The well was drilled, a depth of just over 3,600 meters below the bottom was reached (the depth of the ocean in this place reaches one and a half kilometers), and it remained to complete the work of strengthening the well with cement in order to reliably “lock in” the oil and gas.

This process in a simplified form goes like this. Special cement is fed into the well through the casing, then drilling fluid, which, with its pressure, displaces the cement and forces it to rise up the well. The cement hardens quickly enough and creates a reliable “plug”. And then sea water is pumped into the well, which washes out the drilling fluid and any debris. A large protective device- a preventer, which in the event of an oil and gas leak simply blocks their access to the top.

Since the morning of April 20, cement has been pumped into the well, and by lunchtime the first tests to test the reliability of the cement “plug” have already been carried out. Two specialists flew to the platform to check the quality of cementing. This check was supposed to last about 12 hours, but the management, who could not wait any longer, decided to abandon standard procedure, and at 14.30 specialists with their equipment left the platform, and soon drilling fluid began to be pumped into the well.

Suddenly, at 18.45, the pressure in the drill string increased sharply, reaching 100 atmospheres in a few minutes. This meant that gas was leaking from the well. However, at 19.55 water pumping began, which simply could not be done. In the next hour and a half, water was pumped with varying success, as sudden pressure surges forced work to be interrupted.

Finally, at 21.47 the well does not hold up, gas rushes up the drill string, and 21.49 There was a monstrous explosion. After 36 hours, the platform tilted heavily and sank safely to the bottom.

The oil slick has reached the coast of Louisiana. Source: Greenpeace

Consequences of the explosion

An accident on an oil platform has grown into an environmental disaster, the scale of which is simply amazing.

The main cause of environmental disaster is an oil spill. Oil from the damaged well (as well as accompanying gases) continuously flowed for 152 days (until September 19, 2010), and during this time the ocean waters received more than 5 million barrels of oil. This oil caused irreparable damage to the ocean and many coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico.

In total, almost 1,800 kilometers of coastlines were polluted with oil, white sandy beaches turned into black oil fields, and the oil slick on the surface of the ocean was visible even from space. Oil has caused the death of tens of thousands of marine animals and birds.

The fight against the consequences of oil pollution was carried out by tens of thousands of people. “Black gold” was collected from the surface of the ocean special courts(skimmers), and the beaches were cleaned only by hand - modern science cannot offer mechanized means to solve this problem, it is so complex.

The main consequences of the oil spill were eliminated only by November 2011.

The accident had not only environmental, but also enormous (and most negative) economic consequences. Thus, the BP company lost about 22 billion dollars (this includes losses from the loss of a well, payments to victims, and costs to eliminate the consequences of the disaster). But the coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico suffered even more significant losses. This is due to the collapse of the tourism sector (who will go on vacation to dirty oil beaches?), the ban on fishing and other activities, etc. As a result of the oil spill, tens of thousands of people who had nothing to do with this oil were left without work.

However, the disaster also had completely unexpected consequences. For example, while studying an oil spill, bacteria unknown to science were discovered that feed on oil products! It is now believed that these microorganisms significantly reduced the consequences of the disaster, as they absorbed great amount methane and other gases. It is possible that using these bacteria, scientists will be able to create microorganisms that in the future will help deal with oil spills quickly and cheaply.

Workers clean up the consequences of an oil spill. Port Fourchon, Louisiana. Photo: Greenpeace

Current situation

Currently, no work is being carried out at the site where the DeepWater Horizon platform died. However, the Macondo field, which was developed by BP with the help of a platform, stores too much oil and gas (about 7 million tons), and therefore new platforms will definitely come here in the future. True, the same people will be drilling the bottom - BP employees.

No comments. Photo: Greenpeace

Oil is a liquid raw material, the products of which are widely used in the world as fuel, lubricants, oils, etc. It is quite difficult to overestimate the importance of “black gold”. Every day, millions of barrels of oil are sent from oil-producing countries to final consumers through pipelines, railcars and tankers. Unfortunately, this is accompanied by accidents that occur due to wear and tear of equipment, human error or a combination of unfavorable circumstances. . of the year - biggest disaster, which caused significant damage to the ecology of the region.

Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico

April 22, 2010 is considered a black day for North American environmentalists. On this day, an oil platform crashed off the coast of the United States. The cause of the flooding was a gas explosion and subsequent fire. As a result of the accident, 24 went missing and has not been found to this day. 117 other employees were successfully evacuated, some of them with moderate injuries. Rescuers spent 36 hours trying to put out the fire, but all the measures had no effect. The platform was flooded.

The explosion also damaged the field pipeline that carried oil from the seabed to the platform. The damage caused the largest oil spill in US history. The oil leak was discovered only on April 24. From this moment on, British Petroleum, with the support federal services The United States began to carry out work to eliminate the spill of raw materials.

2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill

2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill

Due to the disaster, about 5 million barrels of oil entered the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Every day, several tens of thousands of barrels of raw materials (equivalent to six million liters) entered the water. From the very first days after the leak was discovered, measures were taken to eliminate it. However, they were not successful. The work was carried out for 86 days, and only on June 3 a favorable result was achieved. Using special robotics capable of working at depth, it was possible to remove the drill pipe. At the same time, a special protective screen was placed in its place. The remaining oil flows were sent to specially designated tanks.

Despite this, a huge amount of oil has already managed to get into the waters. Due to the action of wind and currents, the oil slick expanded over a large area of ​​water. In early August, the leak was completely eliminated. The well was cemented. Additionally, a special relief well was created, which made it possible to reduce the fluid pressure. Both wells connected at a depth of five and a half kilometers.

Consequences

The accident caused enormous damage to the ecology of the region. More than two thousand kilometers of the North American coast were polluted with oil. Scientists noted the death of all invertebrate animals located within the radius of the leak. The mortality rate of dolphins and cetaceans has increased several times. At the same time, environmentalists say that the real figures are much worse than those given in official reports. Due to the accident, fishing was completely prohibited in the water area.

Controlled combustion technology was actively used to eliminate the oil spill. The coast and the bottom were cleaned using mechanical methods cleaning. The unique nature of the region, the combination of microorganisms, relief and favorable conditions sea ​​currents played into the hands of the rescuers. Despite the fact that the water area was completely cleared only after a year and a half, the delayed Negative consequences disasters still manifest themselves to this day.

On April 20, 2010, one of the most serious environmental tragedies in the history of this region occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. As a result of an explosion on a BP oil platform, 11 people were killed and 17 others were reported injured.

The consequences of the accident still have a devastating impact on animal world. Following the disaster, which released approximately 5,000,000 barrels of oil into the waters, there was a dramatic increase in mortality among 14 species of animals common to the Bay Area. The oil has not disappeared anywhere, it is at the bottom of the bay, it is washed ashore and carried by water into the swamp. An estimated 900 dolphins have been found dead or stranded since April 2010. This number is significantly higher than previously recorded for the same period of life expectancy.

Dolphins that live in areas of the Gulf contaminated with oil suffer from numerous liver and lung diseases, are lethargic and have low body weight. The fact that dolphins, at the top of food chains, have so many health problems indicates the deep damage done to the environment. Since the accident, about 500 turtles have been found dead in the Gulf of Mexico each year, a significant increase over normal levels.

In addition, scientists have revealed an increased content of toxic substances in the blood of birds that spend the winter on the coast near the bay, and in the blood of sperm whales, which often swim to the place where the accident occurred, an abnormally high content of chromium and nickel was recorded - metals that have a destructive effect. impact on cells.

The cause of the oil spill on the platform where the British oil company British Petroleum was drilling at the Macondo well was an explosion, which killed 11 people. The leak was stopped only after 5 months. During this time, about 760,000,000 liters of oil entered the water. This created one of the largest stains in US history. The spill threatens hundreds of kilometers coastline, and it all started with an explosion on the platform.

Nearly thousands of ships battled to contain the oil slick fueled by an exposed well. Crude oil came from the ocean floor. No one could have predicted the events that took place.

There were more than a hundred people on the tower and people were jumping overboard. It was necessary to act immediately. The incident occurred 213 kilometers from the Coast Guard base and 190 kilometers from the Coast Guard helicopter rescue base. Rescuers flying to help saw the glow of fire 145 km from the site, which once again confirmed the seriousness of the situation.

When the Deepwater Horizon rig sank at a depth of 1.5 km, there were no signs that the well and its vertical pipe there is oil - there was no. It appears that the leak has somehow stopped. As the fire destroyed oil on the surface of the sea, rescuers worried that the tragedy was not over yet. The well is not plugged.
The seriousness of the tragedy reaches its peak - oil begins to appear from the depths of the bay and this quickly aggravates the matter. A spot is formed, which becomes the most heavy pollution in the Gulf of Mexico for all times.

The oil giant's PR people claim that the consequences of the accident have been virtually eliminated, but sailors working in the Gulf may argue with this. Their current catch is eyeless shrimp and mutant fish. Nothing like this had ever been seen before.

Shrimp without eyes, fish with severe injuries, crabs with previously unseen spots - are no longer decoy. Fishermen catch hundreds of kilograms of mutants and sick inhabitants of the bay. Overnight catches of 400 pounds of shrimp may contain 100 or even 200 pounds of eyeless shrimp.

Scientists are even afraid to imagine what other surprises the disaster of four years ago will bring them. But they firmly believe that it will take at least 10 years to completely clean up the Gulf of Mexico. However, BP has a slightly different point of view. The oil company responsible for the accident is spending millions of dollars on commercials. Their goal is to show that the bay is clean and the seafood is safe. Video footage of environmentalists and evidence local residents they say the opposite.

On April 20, 2010, 80 kilometers off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, killing 11 workers, the derrick itself collapsed, and tons of unrefined oil spilled into the ocean. About 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, polluting shores, devastating urban economies and destroying the environment.

The study of the disaster is still ongoing, the problems of the effectiveness of dispersants and the impact of long-term consequences on the health of people and animals are being considered.

The oil spill that followed the accident became the largest in US history and turned the accident into one of the largest man-made disasters in the world. negative influence on the environmental situation.

In this post we will look at what happened before and one year after this disaster.

(Total 39 photos)

The Deepwater Horizon rig burns in the Gulf of Mexico, 80 km southeast of Venice, Louisiana, on April 20. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The ship recovers oil after the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 28, 2010. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

An aircraft spraying dispersant over the waters of the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

A school of dolphins in the oily waters of Chandele Bay. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A column of smoke from burning oil off the coast of Louisiana on June 9, 2010. (Reuters/Petty Officer First Class John Masson/U.S. Coast Guard)

Unrefined oil ashore at Orange Beach, Alabama, June 12, 2010. A large number of oil reached the coast of Alabama, leaving behind puddles with a density of 13-15 cm in some places. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

A young heron dies in oil-contaminated bush after an oil spill in Barataria Bay on May 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Defense Fund Expert environment Angelina Freeman takes a sample of oil in Barataria Bay. (Reuters/Sean Gardner)

Reuters photographer Lee Celano walks through oiled bushes near Pass-a-Loutre, Louisiana, on May 20, 2010. (Reuters/Matthew Biggs)

NASA satellite image of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. (Reuters/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Underwater corals on the bottom of the northern Gulf of Mexico, near the site of the September 2010 oil spill. Scientists are checking whether the disaster harmed the corals. (AP Photo/Discovre Team 2010)

Vessels helping to drill an inclined well at sunset on September 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Courtney Kemp, 27, mourns her husband Roy Watt Kemp, who died in the Deepwater Horizon explosion in Jonesville, Louisiana. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Raindrops on an oil puddle near the disaster site. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

A northern gannet affected by an oil leak is washed at a rescue center. wildlife at Fort Jackson on July 1, 2010. (Reuters/Sean Gardner)

The Q4000 drags an explosion-damaged blowout valve on September 4, 2010. The valve, which was removed from the tower and replaced with a new one, will be taken for examination. (Reuters/Petty Officer 1st Class Thomas Blue/U.S. Coast Guard)

Hundreds of cranes and ships in the calm waters of Port Fourchon on December 3, 2010 in Golden Meadow, Louisiana. The bustling port came to a standstill after a ban on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. (AP Photo/Kerry Maloney)

Healthy roseate spoonbills over Cat Island in Barataria Bay, near Myrtle Grove, on March 31. (Reuters/Sean Gardner)

Tulane University ecologist Jessica Henkel sets up a net to catch visiting birds to collect blood, feces and feather samples at Fourchon Beach April 1. This is part research project about the effects of an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico that could affect birds that stop here during migration. “It's easier to spot a dead pelican on the beach than the consequences of a disaster that might show up in the future,” says Jessica. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Workers remove oil from national park Perdido Key in Pensacola, Florida, March 10. Work to clean up beaches along the Gulf of Mexico is still ongoing. (Eric Thayer/Getty Images)

A Great Blue Heron sits on a barrier used to protect a beach from the Deepwater Horizon oil leak on June 7, 2010 in Pensacola, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Marine products distribution company owner Darlene Kimball greets customers at the company's office in Pass Christiana, Miss., on March 29. Kimball, who was never reimbursed for the Deepwater Horizon explosion, dreads thinking about where the local government spent BP funds. (AP Photo/Jason Bronis)

A dolphin named Louie at the Dolphin Research Center interacts with veterinarian Kara Field on February 8 in Marathon, Florida. The dolphin was found on September 2, 2010 - it washed up on the beach in Port Fourchon in Louisiana, it was completely soaked in oil. Since then he has been cared for in research and educational center marine mammals in the Florida Keys. Louis arrived in Research Center after being brought back to life at the New Orleans Institute. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Oil-covered dead grass mixed with new growth in Barataria Bay, near Myrtle Grove, Louisiana, on March 31. (Reuters/Sean Gardner)

A dead sea turtle washed ashore in Pass Christiana on April 16. Local activist Shirley Tillman found 20 dead turtles in Mississippi in April alone. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Sunset over the wetlands of Barataria Bay on April 13. Barataria Bay, with its marshes, suffered the most as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil leak. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Hans Holbrook stands in the marshes with speakers blasting birdsong at the annual Christmas Bird Count in Grand Isle, Louisiana, on December 22, 2010. 60,000 bird lovers from all over the Western Hemisphere flock here in the winter to count birds in these areas and submit lists to Audubon. This tradition has been going on for 110 years. (AP Photo/Sean Gardner)

Guests enjoy seafood from the Gulf of Mexico during the Lunch on the Sand: Celebration of the Gulf event in Gulf Shores, Alabama, on April 17. Celebrity chef Guy Phiri served 500 people in honor of the beach clean-up following the disaster a year ago. (Michael Spooneybarger/ AP Images for Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism) Researchers from the Audubon Institute, the National Institute of Oceanography and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries release sea turtles rescued from an oil spill back into the Gulf of Mexico 72 km off the Louisiana coast on October 21 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Price Billiot at a fishing spot in the fishing village of Pointe Au Chêne in Louisiana on January 28, 2011. Billiot is surviving in part thanks to the $65,000 BP PLC paid him in June to reimburse him for business losses. Even before the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the Indian-American village was on the verge of disintegration due to social change and loss of coastal territory. Now Indians who have been fishing all their lives are depending on Kenneth Feinberg, the man handing out checks for billions of dollars in damages after the disaster. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

The sun reflects off the blue water where the Deepwater Horizon once stood, almost a year later. The ugly stains of last summer have become fading memories, as if to prove that nature has a way of recovering. However, this is only a shiny surface, the image of which can be deceiving. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)