Oil in the Gulf of Mexico

Flamingos in the Celestun Biosphere Reserve, Yucatan, Mexico. Wetland bird reserves around the Gulf of Mexico are vulnerable to oil spillages. Oil can coat the plumage of birds, making their feathers waterlogged. The area of wetland is declining — in the Mississippi Delta alone it has declined by over 70% in the last 80 years

The offshore oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico account for almost 30% of the total crude oil production of the USA. Offshore natural gas production in the Gulf is 12% of the US total. In addition, over 40% of the total US petroleum refining capacity is located along the coast of the Gulf as well as nearly 30% of the total natural gas processing capacity.

These figures show how crucial the Gulf of Mexico is to the US economy. When the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on 20 April 2010, killing 11 workers, the effects were not only the tragic loss of life. The US national economy and the whole Gulf coast region were affected (see WIDEWORLD Vol. 22, No. 3). Oil production in the Gulf was stopped until the disaster could be investigated. Perdido, the deepest deep-water drilling and production platform in the world, 320 km south of the coast of Texas, ground to a halt, costing $2 billion. Drilling didn’t start again until October 2010.