BP Oil Spill

Also known as the Deepwater Horizon spill or the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the BP oil spill was the largest in U.S. history. The cause of the discharge was an explosion on British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. That explosion resulted in 11 deaths and the release of millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf over 87 days. The well was capped on July 15, 2010.