An uncontrolled release of hydrocarbons ignited on the drill floor. Primary well control was provided by the completion fluid, but this was being changed out during normal testing operations. Primary well control was then the cement job on the liner which was woefully inadequate in design (BP US) and execution (Halliburton). With no primary well control, then the rig relied on secondary well control, the blowout preventer (Transocean). This also failed. Due to the explosion, damage and loss of the Deepwater Horizon there was no way to recover control. Therefore, tertiary well control was implemented; drilling a relief well into the toe of the uncontrolled well and killing it from the bottom.
in the gulf of Mexico
On the 20th April 2010.
The Gulf Of Mexico
April 20. A tank did not explode. A well began flowing oil onto the rig floor, fire broke out and the rig burned and sank. The well kept on flowing oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
An explosion on a oil rig.
The oil company BP had an oil spill on its rig in the gulf.
There are numerous oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. If you are referring to the rig that suffered the recent disaster on April 20, 2010, it was called the Deepwater Horizon.
Deepwater Horizon
Louisiana
April 20, 2010
There was a oil rig owned by BP that exploded.
There is not one, but there numerous oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Their purpose is to pump the oil from the oil deposits located deep within the sea bed in that region.