turned it into a global hot spot of activity and technological advance. The federal government’s lease sales for the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico led to intense competitions for prospects among companies. The bonus payments and royalties made it a major revenue source for the government.4
The growth of the deepwater sector worldwide was extraordinary—from 1.5 million barrels a day in 2000 to 5 million by 2009. By that point, some 14,000 exploratory and production wells had been drilled in the deep waters around the world. It became customary to describe deepwater production as the great new frontier for the world oil industry. Among the most prospective areas were at the corners of what was called the Golden Triangle—the waters off Brazil and West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico. By 2009 the shallow and deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico together were supplying 30 percent of U.S. domestic oil production. That year, for the first time since 1991, U.S. oil production increased, instead of declining, and the deepwater was the largest single source of growth. In fact, in 2009 the Gulf of Mexico was the fastest-growing oil province in the world.5
DEEPWATER HORIZON
On the morning of April 20, 2010, a helicopter took off from the Louisiana coast and headed out over waters so smooth as to be almost glassy. Its destination was the Deepwater Horizon, a drilling platform operating 48 miles off the Louisiana coast. A fifth-generation semisubmersible drilling rig, the Deepwater Horizon was a marvel of scale and sophisticated engineering. The passengers that morning included executives from Transocean, which owned the drilling rig, and BP, which had been the contractor of the rig since it had been launched nine years earlier. They were flying out to honor the Deepwater Horizon and its team for its outstanding safety record.
The location was Mississippi Canyon Block 252, on a prospect known as Macondo. The Deepwater Horizon had been on site for eighty days. The well had descended through almost five thousand feet of water and then had pushed on through more than another 13,000 feet of dense rock under the seabed, where it had made another major Gulf of Mexico discovery and it was now almost at the end of the job. All that was left to do was plug the well with cement, and then the rig would move on to another site. At some later date, when a permanent production platform was in place, the Macondo well would be unplugged and would begin producing. The crew had encountered some frustrating problems along the way, notably what were called gas kicks from pockets of natural gas. At times Macondo had been called the “well from hell.” But now that all seemed behind them.
A decade earlier, Macondo would have been at the very edge of the frontier, but by 2010 the frontier in the Gulf of Mexico had moved beyond Macondo to discoveries as deep as 35,000 feet—twice that of Macondo.
Now, on board the Deepwater Horizon, it was a matter of wrapping up over the next few days—highly exacting and technically complex work, but also familiar in terms of what needed to be done. The night before, April 19, it was decided to dispense with a cement bond log, which would have provided critical data to determine if the well was sealed is a secure way. It was deemed unnecessary. Overall, things seemed to be proceeding normally.
At 7:55 p.m. the evening of April 20, final tests were concluded on the pressure in the well. After some discussion, the results were judged satisfactory. That was a misinterpretation. For deep down in the earth, many thousands of feet below the seabed, something insidious, undetected, was beginning to happen. Oil and, even more dangerous, gas were seeping through the cement that was meant to keep the well sealed.
At 9:41 p.m., the captain of a neighboring ship, the Damon Bankston, saw mud shooting up above the drilling rig with extraordinary force. He hurriedly called the Deepwater Horizon. The officer on the brig told him there was “trouble” with the well and to pull away as fast as possible. Then the line went dead.
“WE HAVE A SITUATION”
On the rig itself, one of the drillers called a superior in a panic. “We have a situation. The well has blown out.” People began to scramble, but the response in those critical minutes was hampered by confusion, poor communication, unclear information, and lack of training for that kind of extreme situation.
Yet there was still one last wall of