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Editorial: Deepwater Horizon five years on

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"Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream."- Khalil Gibran (1883 – 1931)

It seems only fitting that today’s newsletter is dedicated to an event that happened almost 2000 yesterdays ago….

On April 20th 2010, 11 men lost their lives after an explosion aboard the dynamically-positioned, semi-submersible drilling rig Deepwater Horizon. The well blowout and resultant oil spill pumped 3.2 million barrels into the Gulf of Mexico over a period of four months in the biggest marine catastrophe in US history.

The legal case against the operator of the asset, BP, is still ongoing and will see the supermajor pay a maximum fine of $13.7 billion for gross negligence for the disaster at the ultra-deep water Macondo Prosepct.

Five years ago yesterday, the oil and gas world changed. Half a decade on, Oil & Gas IQ and our friend, colleague and columnist, Derek Park, present you with Anatomy of A Disaster, a detailed infographic guide to the perfect storm of events that lead to this tragic incident.

Based on facts presented throughout the BP trial, in a flow chart format we clearly and comprehensively break down the web of contributing factors that led to the biggest offshore disaster of the last quarter century.

Gibran reminds us of the importance of dreaming for tomorrow. It is another genius that urges us to guard against reverie becoming on somnambulism:

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)


Tim Haðdar
is the Editor In Chief at Oil & Gas IQ. Reach Him At Twitter Or OGIQ


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