Oil Spill Science and Technology, 2nd Edition

2.3. Well Blowouts

In the aftermath of the 2010 Macondo MC252 (“Deepwater Horizon”) well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, there has been a great deal of public concern and regulatory focus on risks associated with worst-case blowout scenarios from offshore wells. A major part of risk assessment for well blowouts is the determination of the probability of incidents occurring and the nature of these incidents with respect to spill volume.

2.3.1. Historical Blowouts

A summary of the data available on the 20 largest historical well blowouts is in Table 2.2. The largest offshore well blowout is either the 1979 Ixtoc I incident, which involved 3.3 to 10.2 million barrels, or the Macondo MC252 incident of 4.2 million barrels. Two estimates are provided for ...