The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the "BP oil spill") was an industrial disaster that began on 20 April 2010 off of the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect,6789 considered to be the largest
marine oil spill in the
history of the petroleum industry and estimated to be 8 to 31 percent larger in volume than the previous largest, the Ixtoc I oil spill, also in the Gulf of Mexico. The United States federal
government estimated the total discharge at 4.9 MMbbl (210,000,000 US gal; 780,000 m3).3 After several failed efforts to contain the flow, the
well was declared sealed on 19 September 2010.10 Reports in early
2012 indicated that the well site was still leaking.1112 The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is regarded as one of the largest environmental disasters in world history.
