10 years later: How the Deepwater Horizon oil spill changed safety, education

Today marks the 10-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that deeply affected south Louisiana and took years to clean up, affecting wildlife and the seafood industry.

If there was anything to gain from this disaster, it was realizing the importance of safety in the drilling industry, says LSU Petroleum Engineering Professional-in-Residence Wesley Williams. According to an LSU release, Williams works to teach his students the importance of safety, and he and other LSU petroleum engineering faculty have spent the past decade researching how to prevent future offshore explosions and spills.

On April 20, 2010, high-pressure methane gas from the oil well expanded into the marine riser and rose into the Deepwater Horizon rig, where it exploded, engulfing the rig and killing 11 workers. The rig sank on April 22, 2010, and oil spilled into the Gulf for 87 days at an estimated flow-rate of 1,000-5,000 barrels per day. The U.S. government estimates a total of 4.9 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf.

BP spent more than $65 billion on cleanup costs and penalties. According to Williams, the petroleum industry is not to blame; the lack of safety culture is.

“My first thought after hearing about the [Deepwater Horizon] rig explosion was, ‘Where were the human failures?’” Williams says. “It’s always multiple human failures that create these kinds of disasters. Deepwater was days of ignoring telltale signs that what you’re doing is wrong. It was years of culture that built up into causing that.”