On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon, a semi-submersible Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit owned and operated by Transocean and drilling for BP in the Macondo Prospect oil field southeast of the Louisiana coast, exploded. The explosion killed eleven workers, injured sixteen others, and caused the Deepwater Horizon to catch fire and sink. The same blowout also caused a massive offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This spill has been considered the largest accidental marine oil spill to date, as well as the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.
