IXTOC I

Thirty-one years ago this month, on June 3, 1979, the drilling platform SEDCO 135-F, operating in the Gulf of Mexico, under contract to PEMEX, suffered a loss of drilling mud circulation while drilling the IXTOC I well. Much like the current Deepwater Horizon incident, the resulting blowout and fire resulted in the rig sinking into the Gulf.

While the depth of this rig was only 165', a fraction of 5000' hampering BP's efforts, it too proved difficult to contain. The BOP was finally closed only after two relief wells were drilled to reduce the pressure. Meanwhile, the well spilled oil at a rate of 10,000 - 30,000 bbls per day before it was successfully capped on March 23, 1980.

Some of the methods used in the attempt to stop the spill included "Project Sombrero" ( Spanish for Top Hat? ), pumping drilling mud into the BOP ( Top Kill ? ) and trying to jam the BOP with metal spheres ( Junk Shot? ). They didn't work then, just as they didn't work now. Oh, and whatever happened to SEDCO?  You might recognize them by their current name "Transocean Sedco Forex Inc."  Yes, that Transocean.   PEMEX, a decentralized public entity of the Mexican government, refused to pay any damages for the spill, claiming Sovereign Immunity. 

The Miami Herald reports on the apparent lack of aftereffects these three decades after the blowout. One caveat: while this may seem like a reason to hope that the Gulf will recover in the same manner from this spill, the notable difference is that the IXTOC I oil affected mostly sand beaches along the Mexico coast, not the fertile wetlands and estuaries of the Mississippi River delta region. 

"Ixtoc offshore well: Gulf's other massive oil spill no longer apparent"

Thirty-one years since the worst oil spill in North American history blanketed 150 miles of Texas beach, tourists noisily splash in the surf and turtles drag themselves into the dunes to lay eggs.
"You look around and it's like the spill never happened," shrugs Tunnell, a marine biologist. "There's a lot of perplexity in it for many of us."

Ixtoc I: A Case Study of the World's Largest Oil Spill
Arne Jernelöv and Olof Lindén
Ambio, Vol. 10, No. 6, The Caribbean (1981), pp. 299-306
(article consists of 8 pages)
Published by: Allen Press on behalf of Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4312725