Following is a timeline of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill for July 2010 .
Events prior to June
June 2010
July 1–5
July 1 Total estimated discharge since the start reaches – topping Ixtoc I oil spill that was the previous biggest in the Gulf of Mexico. Senate Republicans agree to lift secret hold that Jim DeMint placed to block legislation giving subpoena powers to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. Wesley Denton, DeMint's spokesman, says, ""Senator DeMint does not and will not have an objection to this legislation…He simply objected on behalf of other senators who had not been given time to review the bill. Now that they've had time to review it, it seems no one has an objection." Kenneth Feinberg tells the House Small Business Committee that tourist-related businesses may not be able to collect from the fund set aside to pay damages. "If there's no physical damage to the beaches and it's a public perception, I venture to say that it is not compensable," he testifies. The supertanker A Whale, belonging to TMT Shipping of Taiwan arrives at Boothville, Louisiana. It is billed at the "world's largest skimmer." It reports it can skim a day – 250 times the capacity of the fishing boats being used. It is awaiting approval to be used. Hurricane Alex is downgraded to tropical storm and comes ashore in Mexico. 510 skimmers have been sent into port. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and Occupational Safety and Health Administration establish recommendations for using respirators. They are particularly recommended for those where oil is being burned and voluntarily recommended elsewhere. BP issues cards to employees and contractors telling them they are free to talk to the press. July 2 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issues models of the probability of oil coming a shore based on historical winds and currents. The model show that Texas has a 1% chance of getting hit but that Florida Keys, Miami, Florida, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida areas have a greater probability (61%–80%) due to the potential influence of the Loop Current. Allen says that number of skimmers in the Gulf should increase from 550 to 750 by mid-July and more by August. Allen says that Hurricane Alex delayed the deployment of the Helix Producer and they are now on track for it to come online on July 7 allowing collection of up to a day with the existing cap. A second vertical riser is being installed and it is hoped will go into operation by July 15. For everything to function a new cap will have to be installed. Allen reports an autonomous sub-sea dispersant delivery system has been proposed by BP for delivering disperants in case a hurricane forces the recovery operations to be suspended. The proposal is pending authorization. Allen says the options in case the relief wells do not work are establishing pipelines to production facilities up to 5 miles (8 km) away and then pumping it back down into the reservoir. Another option is to simply continue to pump oil out of the well if the cap is successful. Paul Zukunft says impact of Alex’s seven foot waves impacting the well site and that 50 percent of the overflights were canceled. The A Whale begins trials. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailers used in Hurricane Katrina are reported to be being used by BP to house employees. The Katrina trailers had issues with contamination from formaldehyde and had rules about their reuse. They do not have the serial numbers. Zukunft says they are not the Katrina trailers. New York Times reports on Camp Hope in Arabi, Louisiana which was being used for rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina. BP has spent $600,000 on renovations to house 300 oil spill personnel.In a Refuge Haunted by Katrina, BP Swirls In - New York Times - July 2, 2010 Study by researchers from the Imperial College London published in Water Research says that oil interferes with the "ocean's natural filtration system, allowing arsenic levels to build up and threatens the long-term health of marine plants and animals." July 3 Unified Command issues press release which says, "The risk of weathered oil and tar balls from the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill coming to the Florida Peninsula and the Florida Keys remains low under current ocean and wind conditions. NOAA's long-term projection model released yesterday focused on the possible long-term shoreline threats and not on current wind and ocean conditions in the Gulf of Mexico...The model considers conditions that are typical for this time of year to evaluate the long-term likelihood of threats to different shorelines. Current conditions, especially given the absence of a significant amount of Deepwater Horizon/BP oil from the loop current, indicate that immediate threats to the Florida Keys, Miami and Ft. Lauderdale areas remain low." July 4 Don Ballard, the operations director for the Grand Isle branch of the Unified Command, says in a press release, "There is a long-term treatment plan for Grand Isle which includes the collection and washing of oiled sand including buried oil...Part of this plan includes collecting and storing oiled sand in piles for later cleaning. At no time has clean sand been used by clean-up crews to cover or bury oil or oiled sand." The facility to treat oily birds at Fort Jackson, Louisiana is moved to Hammond, Louisiana to avoid hurricane complications. The Unified Command issues a press release noting that its exclusion zone around booms is to protect the booms from damage and not to exclude press. "These 20-meter zones are only slightly longer than the distance from a baseball pitcher's mound to home plate. This distance is insignificant when gathering images. In fact, these zones, which do not target the press, can and have been opened for reporters as required. It is unfortunate that the safety zones are needed at all, but the responsibility of officials is to wage the most effective and safest response possible while best supporting factual and open reporting. That will continue until BP caps its leaking well and the cleanup is complete." Unified Command releases story 10-year-old Ian Masson who raised $445 in a "Pennies for Pelicans" campaign in Michigan. July 5 BP says the spills outright cost is $3.12 billion and that so far it has received 95,000 claims and made around 47,000 payments. It says it has collected or flared , skimmed and had control burns of . Weather Service predicts wave heights of 3 to through July 8. Helix Producer cannot connect with heights greater than 3 feet. Unified Command reports 1,000 Heavy Oil Recovery Devices (HORD) being manufactured in Pensacola, Florida and Bayou La Batre, Alabama are expected to come online within the next few weeks. The device was invented by Gerry Matherne to deal with the unique situation in the Gulf. Previous skimmers focused on surface oil whereas the current oil is degraded to peanut butter-consistency and is floating 12 to 18 inches below the surface. The device is described as "A mesh bag held open by a by aluminum frame and is dragged through the water by shrimp boats put into service as oil skimmers. The cage-like device scoops up surface oil and sheen, as well as the thick oil lurking beneath the surface of the water." Small amounts of tarballs wash ashore on the Bolivar Peninsula, northeast of Galveston, Texas and on Galveston Island, itself. This is the first report of tarballs in Texas. Oil is reported at Rigolets, raising fears it will hit Lake Pontchartrain. Shokri Ghanem, chairman of National Oil Corporation urges the Libyan Investment Authority to increase its share of BP because "BP shares are good value for bargain hunters." Tests on the A Whale prove inconclusive because of high waves. National Hurricane Center says there is a 60 percent chance that a disorganized, low-pressure system could develop into a tropical storm before moving inland July 5 or 6. U.S. Navy Blimp American Blimp MZ-3 deployed to Jack Edwards National Airport in Gulf Shores, Alabama. It is to be moored 3 miles (5 km) southeast of the Mobile Bay shoreline. Barclays PLC, BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup Inc., Banco Santander SA, HSBC Holdings PLC, Royal Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Société Générale are reported preparing a plan to give BP a $9 billion standby letter of credit. New York Times reports that The Economist magazine is involved in a photo manipulation controversy over its altering a Reuters photo taken by Larry Downing on May 28, of Barack Obama with Lafourche Parish, Louisiana president Charlotte Randolph and Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen on the beach in front an oil rig. In the edited photo Randolph and Allen were removed, with Obama shown looking downward, and the beach debris he was originally looking at was also cropped. The photo was used on the June 19 Economist cover with the headline "Obama v. BP". Emma Duncan, deputy editor of The Economist, responded "I asked for Ms. Randolph to be removed because I wanted readers to focus on Mr. Obama, not because I wanted to make him look isolated. That wasn't the point of the story. "The damage beyond the spill" referred to on the cover, and examined in the cover leader, was the damage not to Mr. Obama, but to business in America."
July 6–10
July 6 BP shares jump 6.5% in one day after it announces it will not issue more shares. Helix Energy Solutions Group CEO Owen Kratz says BP waited 6 weeks until June 10 before accepting an offer to use Helix Producer I at the spill. The Producer has a larger capacity than the Deepwater Horizon. July 7 New website RestoreTheGulf.gov to replace deepwaterhorizonresponse.com as the official federal government website for the spill. Allen says Development Driller III is within horizontally of the wellbore but wants to intercept it another 200 to further down. Allen says Helix Producer is partially connected and should go into operation by July 10. CNN reports that BP may have to pay the U.S. 18.75% royalties for oil coming gushing out of the well. Criticism erupts over Bobby Jindal plan to build rock islands off the Louisiana coast from scientists and government officials who say it would disrupt the ecosystem. July 8 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 2-1 vote refuses to overturn oil drilling moratorium in Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar. Administration says it will issue a new moratorium. Alliance for Justice reports that two of the appeals justices Jerry E. Smith and W. Eugene Davis had represented the oil and gas industries while in private practice. It reported that the third justice James L. Dennis who dissented had investments in at least 18 energy companies valued at between $31,000 and $300,000.Court Rejects Moratorium on Drilling in the Gulf - nytimes.com - July 8, 2010 Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle tells KXNT she was wrong in calling BP oil's $20 billion victims' compensation program "a slush fund," backtracking just hours after her widely criticized remark. CNN reports BP is becoming increasingly stringent with its demands for documentation from victims filing claims for lost wages and income. Bob Dudley tells the Wall Street Journal "In a perfect world with no interruptions, it's possible to be ready to stop the well between July 20 and July 27." He cautioned that hurricanes could change that schedule. Allen says that now is a weather window between tropical storms that would permit replacing the cap with a new cap that would be securely fasten to the blowout preventer that would be capable of capturing all of the oil believed to be coming out of the well. The cap would serve the existing rigs plus Helix Producer. Allen sends letter to Dudley asking for a detailed timeline on the cap and contingency plans in case it fails.Letter from Thad Allen to Bob Dudley – July 8, 2010 July 9 BP says it will replace the cap on the gusher on July 10.