BP was responsible for the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded on April 20, 2010, while working on BP’s Macondo prospect in the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven workers died, the rig sank, and oil flowed from the damaged well for 87 days before it was capped.
The spill became the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. Investigations identified failures involving well design, cementing, testing, management decisions and communication among BP, Transocean and Halliburton. BP was the well operator and leaseholder, while Transocean owned and operated the rig.
The disaster is sometimes simply called the BP oil spill, but Deepwater Horizon was the name of the rig, not the well. BP agreed to billions of dollars in criminal and civil penalties, cleanup costs and compensation. The event also prompted major changes in offshore drilling regulation and safety oversight.