The Lakeview Gusher was a small well owned by the Lakeview Oil Company. The company wished to find a small amount of natural gas and petroleum. However, under the small amount of fossil fuels, there lay the one of the largests oil reserves in the world. In curiosity, when the workers drilled down to about 2,500 feet, all hell broke loose. Oil gushed out and made a fountain of several hundred feet high. On average, nearly 18,000 barrels (2.9 million liters) poured out of the well every day . At its peak, the gusher spewed out an uncontrollable 100,000 barrels (16 million liters) daily. Therefore, the well spilled 9 million barrels (1.4 billion liters) during a 18-month period. The workers had to use dykes and sand bags to prevent the oil from spreading. Eventually, a massive lake of oil was formed and people had to use small boats to cross it.
Fortunately, scientists have invented something called the blowout preventer, a device that stops gushers from sprouting oil. Essentially, it consists of a mechanism that stops the uncontrollable flow of oil through a well by severing the pipe with hydraulic locks. However, these blowout preventers are not always a success. The recent Deepwater Horizon oil spill was caused by the failure of the blowout preventer. Therefore, I believe that we should have multiple lines of defense. Nearly all blowout preventer has only one stopper. Having numerous stoppers will ensure that, even though the first stopper fails, the secondary and tertiary stoppers will stop the oil. By Y.J. Kim
