What Really Happened on Deepwater Horizon: The Test That Said No

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven men were killed, and the Macondo well under it flowed for 87 days. The well had layers of protection: cement at the bottom, heavy mud, a pressure test, a crew watching the flow, and a blowout preventer on the seafloor. That evening the test showed 1,400 psi on the drill pipe and zero on the kill line, two lines that should have matched. It was explained away. Every barrier failed. Coded animation shows the mechanism step by step; the official record proves it. 0:00 The explosion 0:26 Five barriers 0:51 The rig and the well 1:50 Barrier 1: the cement 3:05 Barrier 2: the negative test 3:49 The bladder effect 4:22 Barrier 3: watching the well 5:00 The blowout 5:47 Barrier 4: the blowout preventer 6:42 Why the shear ram failed 7:01 The rescue 7:26 87 days of oil 7:56 What the investigations found Sources: US Chemical Safety Board, Investigation Report Vol. 1-2, Explosion and Fire at the Macondo Well (2014); National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Deep Water (2011); USCG/BOEMRE Joint Investigation Team report Vol. II (2011); DNV BOP forensic examination (2011); US District Court E.D. La., MDL 2179 Phase Two findings (2015). Images: US Coast Guard, NASA, CSB. #DeepwaterHorizon #Macondo #Postmortem