When the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in April 2010, killing 11 people and releasing 205 million gallons of crude into the ocean for 111 days, it started a long and complicated process to determine who is responsible, and how much – and for how long – they would dedicate to the cleanup process, which most agree will never be fully complete. The simple answer to how much it costs to clean up an oil spill is thousands to millions to billions of dollars. It is yet to be established whether the oil killed them. British oil firm claims every safety device failed before Gulf of Mexico explosion a year ago, Available for everyone, funded by readers, Photographs from the Guardian Eyewitness series, Oil company tells court that a policy decision announced in January allows businesses to manipulate payout figures, BP faces struggle to argue that scheme it set up after Gulf of Mexico oil spill is being abused by fraudulent claims, reports. Finally, engineers were successful by bolting a sealing cap on top of the blowout preventer. No. Marybeth Holleman says 25 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, its toxic effects remain. Next, engineers attempted to "kill" the well by injecting heavy mud into the blowout preventer. “The Coast Guard is out there making sure the recommendations are followed.”. It has run a series of full-page newspaper adverts to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the spill. It depends who you ask. We did an experiment testing a few ways to clean up our own oil spill. All rights reserved. Markey, the Democratic head of the House sub-committee on energy and the environment, said at the time: "This document raises very troubling questions about what BP knew and when they knew it. subscription. In addition, BP's contingency plan for dealing with a catastrophic oil spill contained many errors and miscalculations, according to an analysis by the Associated Press. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. The mistakes included listing animals not found in the Gulf region (including seals and walruses) as potential victims of an oil spill, and the recommendation of a long-deceased scientist as an expert on wildlife contamination. Ed Markey, a senator investigating the spill in Congress, said at the time: "Of their own eight key findings, they only explicitly take responsibility for half of one. In the three months after the spill, BP tripled its advertising budget to £60m, targeting local and national newspapers, magazines, television and social media. This was followed by a loss of control of the pressure of the fluid in the well. It is not clear how much life on the sea bed has been affected. We Joye's research has produced images of mounds of dead organisms including corals, and has found areas where the ocean floor is coated in a dark brown slime about 4cm deep. It is clear that, from the beginning, BP has not been straightforward with the government or the American people about the true size of this spill.". The leak began on 20 April.