Offshore drilling operations cannot continue forever. Wells can only produce for so long before their costs outweigh their productivity. At times, wells must be temporarily shut-in for reasons related to severe weather or problems related to supply and demand (such as occurred during the COVID-19 crisis). Eventually, every well will need to be permanently shut down. Shutting down oil wells is no ...
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More than 55,000 offshore oil wells are scattered among 2,287 active oil and gas leases across the ocean floor of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), which includes 10.9 million acres between state waters to 200 nautical miles from U.S. shores. An astonishing 58% of these wells are orphaned or abandoned . With more than 32,000 abandoned wells littering the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic, Atlantic, ...
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A pipeline break has sent oil spilling into the Pacific Ocean off the Southern California coast, posing a threat to wildlife and residents. Cleanup and response efforts are underway to try to minimize the damage. On Saturday, October 2, 2021, an oil pipeline that runs from the offshore platform Elly to the Port of Long Beach started to leak. The breach occurred about 5 miles from the Huntington ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
10 years ago, the nation was shocked by the deadliest oil rig explosion and fire in its history. When the Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, 2010, it claimed the lives of 11 workers, injured many others, and triggered one of the worst environmental disasters in United States history. It took two days for the Deepwater Horizon to sink and nearly three months to stop its well from leaking 210 ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
On March 24, 1989, we saw one of the worst environmental disasters in the United States. The Exxon Valdez oil spill was so significant that it remained the worst American oil spill until the Deepwater Horizon exploded in April of 2010. The accident happened when the supertanker Exxon Valdez collided with the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Over 10.8 million gallons of oil spilled from ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
We need oil. It heats our homes, keeps our engines running, and fuels the most important components of the nation’s economy. However, when oil companies make mistakes, their product ends up causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to the oceans, coastlines, and the business that rely on them. Both short-term and long-term effects of oil spills are devastating for workers, local ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon erupted into flames after repeated neglect caused the offshore oil rig to explode. The disaster claimed the lives of 11 workers and injured 17 more. The well beneath the rig leaked for months and polluted the Gulf of Mexico with over 4.9 million barrels of oil. It was the worst oil spill in history—at least it was at the time. The Taylor oil spill, which started 6 ...
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On Thursday, Royal Dutch Shell was forced to shut in all wells that flowed to its Brutus platform on account of an oil spill that dumped approximately 2,100 barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. A company helicopter observed an oil sheen that stretched 2 by 13 miles in waters off the Louisiana coast on Thursday, notifying them of the spill. Once notified, the company pinpointed the leak and ...
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When working on oil rigs and platforms, offshore workers constantly face the grave potential of sustaining a serious job-related injury. Whether aboard a ship, towboat, rig, crew boat, jack-up rig, or commercial maritime vessel, the type of labor that is regularly demanded of these workers can often be dangerous, putting them in the way of harm. Complications & Illnesses Caused by Offshore Oil ...
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A portion of the fines that BP has been ordered to pay by the federal government from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and ensuing Gulf of Mexico oil spill will be used for offshore research. The research will be led by a team from the University of Houston and will focus on subsea engineering and other ways to develop safe, sustainable energy production in the Gulf. The goal of the ...
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On December 11, the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) boosted the previous liability limit on oil spills from $75 million to $134 million. This came four years after the tragic Deepwater Horizon incident, which served to prove just how pricey major oil spills can be. Currently, companies are required under the law to pay for the clean-up after a spill; the new boosted ...
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On Monday at approximately 10:46 p.m., 2 vessels (a 52-foot towing vessel named Delta Amber and a 26-foot dredging vessel named Nicholas) sunk in Mobile Ship Channel, just north of Gaillard Island. The crew of Miss Sammy Lee reported the incident to the U.S. Coast Guard and were responsible for rescuing the crews of both sunken vessels. Later, the crewmembers of Delta Amber and Nicholas were ...
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Several months ago after having its appeal of the settlement agreement rejected by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, BP made its intention known that the company would take its appeal all the way to the Supreme Court. On Friday, August 2 nd , BP officially filed its petition with the United States Supreme Court. The petition asks the Supreme Court to dismantle the current settlement agreement ...
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Last week, BP suffered a defeat when the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans refused to reconsider a previous ruling stating that businesses were not required to prove that they were harmed by the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill in order to collect money. When BP approached the federal appeals court asking them to rehear the case, the court voted 8-5 against it—which ultimately ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
Serious breaches discovered at the Norwegian BP Ula field were a potential hazard for a deadly explosion, after an oil and gas leak occurred on site. Regulators state they have ordered the company to review their maintenance procedures after they found various breaches on the platform. Reports show about 125 barrels of oil and another 3,520 pounds of gas leaked at their North Sea platform last ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
The preliminary results of the Chemical Safety Board's (CSB) investigation into the 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and subsequent oil spill (the worst offshore accident recorded in U.S. history) have faulted BP and Transocean for the disaster. Essentially, the report concludes, by focusing on the wrong indicators of safety, the two companies, and the offshore industry in general, allowed ...
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