Note: This timeline was modified using several available timelines, including The
Guardian’s timeline. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/29/bp-oil-spill-timeline-deepwater-horizon
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April 20, 2010 (Tuesday night) 10 p.m. − An explosion at Deepwater Horizon ; rig sank two days later; 50 miles off the Louisian coast; Coast Guard estimated 13,000 gallons of crude were pouring out per hour.
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April 22, 2010 (Thursday) − Oil rig burns out of control and sinks into the ocean. 11 crew members died.
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April 23, 2010 (Friday) − A one-by-five-mile sheen of “crude oil mix” has become visible. 'We are determined to do everything in our power to contain this oil spill,'' said
Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive. ''There should be no doubt of our resolve to limit the escape of oil and protect the marine and coastal environments.” Oil industry experts expressed fear that this could be one of the largest oil spills in the Gulf. The New York
Times reports “Oil Rig Sinks, Raising Fears of a Major Spill in the Gulf.”
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April 25, 2010 (Sunday) – Remote controlled robots try to activate the blowout preventer, a 450 ton valve.
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April 26, 2010 (Monday) − Sheen of oil and water covers 600 square miles, and would make land at some point; Gulf Coast has been warned to be on the alert; 42,000 gallons of oil spilling a day estimated; options: seal off the well with blowout preventer; drilling relief wells sending in heavy mud and concrete into the cavity; place a large dome directly over the leaks to catch the oil and route it up to the surface where it could be collected.
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April 27, 2010 (Tuesday) − The New York Times reports “Robots Working 5,000 Feet
Underwater to Stop Flow of Oil in Gulf of Mexico.”
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April 28, 2010 (Wednesday) − Can’t shut off blow-out preventer; going to plan B which includes setting fire to the crude floating in the Gulf.
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April 29, 2010 (Thursday) – BP CEO Tony Hayward arrives to supervise the recovery efforts. The New York Times reports “Officials Say Oil Leak May Be 5 Times as Much as
Thought”; 5,000 barrels of oil per day vs. 1,000 barrels originally estimated. (NPR April
29, Gulf Oil Spill Estimate Rises; Landfall Expected; 200,000 gallons of oil each day
© Taylor & Francis 2015

(NPR April 30, Oil Spill Has Fishermen Worried About Livelihoods); A third leak on the riser, the 5,000-foot-long pipe that connected the rig to the wellhead is reported by BP officials; BP spending $6 million a day on cleanup efforts; with the leading edge of the oil slick expected to hit the Mississippi Delta area sometime tomorrow, Louisiana
Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency.
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April 30, 2010 (Friday) – U.S. bans drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
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May 2, 2010 – President Barack Obama visits Louisiana to see cleanup efforts.
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May 5, 2010 – Controlled burns of oil in open water begins.
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May 6, 2010 – BP CEO Tony Hayward tells BBC that BP was not cause the accident;
Transocean, which owned the blowout preventer was at fault.
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May 8, 2010 – BP’s plan to use a containment dome does not work. Tar balls show up on
Alabama beaches.
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May 10, 2010 – BP’s CEO Tony Hayward holds a press conference and announces a new plan to funnel oil to the surface with a small containment dome.
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May 11, 2010
– BP, Halliburton and Transocean officials blame each other for the accident during Senate committee on energy and natural resources.
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May 13, 2010
– One university research estimates the oil leak to be 70,000 bpd.
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May 14, 2010 – Bob Dudley, BP's director for the Americas, told MSNBC the 5,000 bpd figure was "a good estimate" and that calculations of up to 70,000 bpd were
"scaremongering.”
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May 26, 2010 – An effort to “plug” the leak with thousands of barrels of mud fails.
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May 30, 2010 – BP CEO Tony Hayward infamously tells a reporter “There’s no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back.”
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June 3, 2010 – BP starts an advertising campaign to improve its image.
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June 4, 2010 – Containment cap placed over valves shows signs of success.
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June 15 – A government panel said the flow rate was up to 60,000 bpd and internal BP documents released by a U.S. Congressman showed BP had itself calculated the well could flow at up to 100,000 bpd.
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June 16, 2010 – BP agrees to a $20 billion compensation fund for victims.
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June 17, 2010 – BP CEO Tony Hayward testifies before Congress but refuses to answer many questions.
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June 20, 2010 – BP CEO Tony Hayward is seen attending a yacht race on the Isle of
Wright.
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June 22, 2010 – BP official Bob Dudley, an American, takes over the oil spill management.
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June 25, 2010 – BP stock value hits a 14-year low. Cleanup efforts reach $2.3 billion.
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July 13, 2010 – BP’s new containment system cap is successfully installed.
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July 15, 2010 – BP reports that it has finally stopped the flow of oil after 87 days.
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July 21, 2010 – BP admits to exaggerating the level of activity at its command center by using Photoshop to show activity on 10 monitoring screens – three were actually blank.
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July 26, 2010 – BP Bob Dudley is named the new CEO for BP which takes effect Oct. 1.
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August 4, 2010 – BP announces that a “static kill” to stop the oil leak was successful by pumping heavy drilling mud and dement into the well.
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September 20, 2010 − BP announces that cleanup costs are approximately $10 billion
© Taylor & Francis 2015

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January 6, 2011 – The White House oil commission’s report concludes that the oil spill was the result of systematic management failure at BP, Transocean and Haliburton.
© Taylor & Francis 2015