Drill, baby, drill: Has Big Oil learnt anything from Deepwater Horizon?

THIS month 15 years ago, the US government declared the Deepwater Horizon oil well sealed, ending a catastrophic leak that spilled 4.9 million barrels (779 million litres, or 311 Olympic-sized pools’ worth) of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

The disaster – which killed 11 people – was the largest marine oil spill in history, unleashing an environmental crisis that by some estimates harmed hundreds of thousands of marine animals and devastated coastal ecosystems.

Now, as of September 2025, that legacy is being fiercely debated as the oil industry prepares to drill even deeper.