Crisis Management
Final Paper

Known as the “Mediterranean of the Americas,” the Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. It extends roughly 995 miles from east to west and 560 miles from north to south. The Gulf is bordered by The United States to the North, Mexico to the west and south, and Cuba to the southeast (The Environmental Protection Agency, 2012). The Gulf connects to the Atlantic Ocean through a current from the Yucatan Straight, circulating around the Gulf and exiting through the Florida Straight, forming the Gulf Stream (The Environmental Protection Agency, 2012). With over 600,000 square miles of area and 16,000 miles of shoreline, the Gulf of Mexico supports a host of economic activities. Tourism, shipping, agriculture, fishing, fisheries, oyster production, shrimp production, oil and gas production, and more from the Gulf produce annual economic activities in excess of $234 billion (Hargreaves, 2010). Oil and gas industry creates $124 billion annually, the largest chunk of Gulf economic activities (Hargreaves, 2010). This industry, while creating the largest economic impact in the area, is also responsible for creating its largest ecological disaster. On April 20, 2010, The BP and Transocean operated oilrig Deepwater Horizon had recently suspended drilling operations more that 50 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana’s coast (Rigzone). BP had filed a permit to temporarily abandon the well and move the rig to a new location. At 10 p.m. an explosion ripped through the rig killing 11 workers (Rigzone). A bubble of methane gas escaped the well and traveled up the well bore, expanding as it climbed. The combustible bubble of gas burst through the barriers designed to contain it, bypassing the blowout preventer, and making it to the rig where the friction from the bubble could create a static charge and