Seconds from Disaster|重返危机现场

Seconds from Disaster

by Olivia Wycech

What really happened in the years, months, and minutes before one of the world's largest oil spills?

On the evening of April 20, 2010, the crew aboard the Deepwater Horizon, an oil rig situated in the Gulf of Mexico, had just finished testing the safety on a recently completed well. Just hours after the well was given the green light, a bubble of methane gas, which would later ignite the rig and engulf it entirely in flames, escaped. The rig's 126 crew members had less than five minutes to evacuate. Sadly, only 115 made it.

Two days later, the Deepwater Horizon sank after burning for more than a day. Around the same time, it became public that crude oil was gushing from the well at the seabed, but the details regarding the severity of the spill were contradictory and considerably downplayed. The world then watched the largest oil spill and environmental disaster unfold. It took nearly three months to stop the oil from spewing into the ocean, but the cleanup effort is far from over.

The events leading up to the explosion and subsequent oil spill have since sparked an abundance of litigations that will continue for many years. Blame has been tossed back and forth, but ultimately, the courts have ruled that BP, the company that was leasing the rig at the time of the catastrophe, is chiefly responsible. Probing done into the years, months, and minutes before the calamity has revealed a chain of events that point to human negligence as the root of the accident. Decisions were made, suggestions were ignored, and evidence was tampered with, which are all investigated on National Geographic Channel's Seconds from Disaster.

重返危机现场

全世界其中一起最严重漏油事件的前数年、数月及数分钟到底发生了什么事？

2010年 4 月 20 日傍晚，在『深水地平线』这座位于墨西哥湾钻油台上的工作人员才刚结束对这座甫竣工油井的安全测试。就在该油井通过测试的数小时后，一股甲烷气体从油井中漏出，随后造成油井起火燃烧，并将整座油井吞没于火焰中。该油井的 126 位工作人员只有不到 5 分钟的时间撤离。不幸地，只有 115 人成功撤离。

两天后，『深水地平线』在燃烧超过 1 天之后沉没。几乎在同一时间，原油从位于海底的油井中大量涌出成了众所皆知的事，但有关漏油严重性的细节却众说纷纭且被极度轻描淡写。接着全世界就眼睁睁看着最严重的漏油事件及环境灾难在他们眼前呈现。相关人员花了大约 3 个月的时间才停止原油继续喷出至海洋中，但距离结束清理工作还遥遥无期。

从当时起，导致爆炸及随后漏油的事件已引发了许多将会持续多年的诉讼。各方互相指责，但最终法院判决在灾难当时租用该油井的英国石油公司要负绝大部份的责任。针对灾难发生前数年、数月及数分钟进行的调查显示，一连串的事件都表明人为疏失是意外的根源。已经做的决定、被忽略的建议还有遭到窜改的证据，这些都是国家地理频道的《重返危机现场》节目所要调查的。

英国石油公司是世界最大私营石油公司之一，也是世界前十大私营企业集团之一，2007年营业额超过 2 千 9 百亿美元。该公司前身是创立于 1908年的盎格鲁．波斯石油公司（Anglo-Persian Oil Company），1954 年改称英国石油公司（British Petroleum），同时 BP 缩写依然常用。该公司整合探油、探气、炼油、储油、售油、零售等营业领域。在 1998 年一次购并行动后，BP 不再作为 British Petroleum 的缩写，而成为公司正式名称。（数据源：维基百科）