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The First Action
The ruptured well is finally sealed and "effectively dead", says the top US federal official overseeing the disaster, Coast Guard Adam Thad Allen. -
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BP Oil Spill
BP Oil Spill -
bp oil spill
On 22 April, The Deepwater Horizon sinks to the bottom of the Gulf after burning for 36 hours, raising concerns of a catastrophic oil spill.
A Coast Guard official says the Macondo well, which the rig had been drilling, could be releasing up to 8,000 barrels of oil per day. -
BP Oil Spill
On 23 April, The Coast Guard says it had no indication that oil was leaking from the well 5,000ft below the surface of the Gulf. -
April 26th
In a reverse, officials reveal the well is leaking an estimated 1,000 barrels of oil per day and warn of environmental disaster. Meanwhile, BP sends undersea robots to the wellhead in an unsuccessful effort to activate the blowout preventer, a piece of heavy kit mounted on top of the well to stem the flow of oil. -
April 29th
The US Coast Guard sets fire to patches of spilled oil in an effort to prevent the slick from reaching the vulnerable Louisiana coastal wetlands. President Barack Obama pledges "every single available resource", including the military, to help in the response effort. -
April 30th
Oil from the leaking well begins washing ashore in Louisiana. Soon fragile coastal wetlands are inundated with thick, brown mud. President Barack Obama's administration bans oil drilling in new areas off the US coast pending investigations into the cause of the BP spill. Before the spill, Mr Obama had said he would allow new offshore drilling -
May 2nd
President Obama makes his first trip to the Gulf Coast and says BP is responsible for the leak and for paying for its clean-up. "We're dealing with a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster," he says. "The oil that is still leaking from the well could seriously damage the economy and the environment of our Gulf states. And it could extend for a long time. It could jeopardise the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who call this place home." -
May 8th
BP's effort to place a giant metal box atop the leaking well to contain the spill fails when ice crystals accumulate inside the box and engineers are forced to remove it.
Meanwhile, officials revise the estimate of the leak's rate upward to 5,000 barrels per day. -
May 10th
BP officials weigh shoving debris, including golf balls and rubber tyres, into the leaking wellhead, a manoeuvre known as the "junk shot". They also ready a "top hat" - a metal dome - to be placed over the leak. -
May 11th
At a series of congressional hearings, BP, Transocean and Halliburton, the three companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon drilling operations, all blame each other for the disaster. -
September 3rd
The blowout preventer that failed to stop the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig is removed from the stricken Gulf of Mexico oil well by BP. The 300-ton device will be examined as part of the inquiry into the leak of 206m gallons of oil into the Gulf. -
September 19th
The ruptured well is finally sealed and "effectively dead", says the top US federal official overseeing the disaster, Coast Guard Adm Thad Allen
