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The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian

Deepwater Horizon

Ten years ago an explosion at a deep water well in the Gulf of Mexico triggered one of America's worst environmental disasters. In a three part series, Guardian writers explore the legacy of the devastating oil spill on the US coastline, the impact on Mexico's fishing industry and ask the question: could it happen again?

24 February 2022

  • A bottlenose dolphin raises its head of the water

    Dolphins hit by Deepwater Horizon spill at risk from new drilling and river plan

    Up to 45% of Barataria Bay’s dolphins died after 2010. Now they face the threat of new drilling and a Mississippi River scheme

6 January 2022

  • The blaze on Deepwater Horizon in April 2010.

    Life after Deepwater Horizon: the hidden toll of surviving disaster on an oil rig

    The long read: When the drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico exploded in 2010, Stephen Stone escaped with his life. But in the years that followed, he came to feel deeply betrayed by the industry he had once trusted

20 April 2020

  • FILE - In this May 22, 2010 file photo, a man lays oil absorbent boom as oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill impacts Cat Island in Barataria Bay, in Plaquemines Parish, La. Ten years after an oil rig explosion killed 11 workers and unleashed an environmental nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico, companies are drilling into deeper and deeper waters where the payoffs can be huge but the risks are greater than ever. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

    'Of course it could happen again': experts say little has changed since Deepwater Horizon

    The danger of deepwater oil operations, combined with the loosening of Obama-era rules, mean the risk of a repeat disaster is high

19 April 2020

  • TAMIAHUA, VERACRUZ. FEBRUARY 27: A merchant weighs shrimp while fishermen talk and other ones arrive to sell their product by the edge of a lagoon in Tamiahua, Veracruz. The decline of fish and seafood has deeply affected communities in the Gulf of Mexico that have depended on its trade and self-consumption for many generations. Photograph: Luis Antonio Rojas/ The Guardian

    ‘We’ve been abandoned’: a decade later, Deepwater Horizon still haunts Mexico

    BP denied the oil reached Mexico, but fisherman and scientists knew it wasn’t true. Ten years on, Mexican communities haven’t received a cent in compensation

18 April 2020

  • Oil Spill<br>FILE- In this June 4, 2010 file photo, a worker picks up blobs of oil with absorbent snare on Queen Bess Island at the mouth of Barataria Bay near the Gulf of Mexico in Plaquemines Parish, La. Nearly $10 million in 2010 oil spill money is rebuilding the barrier island bird rookery off Louisiana. Work on Queen Bess Island had to wait for this year’s nesting season to end in August and must finish by late February or early March, before the next nesting season. The island, which was heavily hit by oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill, supports Louisiana’s third-largest brown pelican nesting colony. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

    'I pray to God it never happens again': US gulf coast bears scars of historic oil spill 10 years on

    The Deepwater Horizon devastated the ecology and economy from Texas to Florida but BP-funded recovery programs are ongoing and the sector is a big employer
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