Jun 3, 2011 7:00 AM

June 3, 1979: The First Great Gulf Oil Disaster

1979: Technical malfunctions allow uncontrollable pressure to build in Ixtoc 1, an exploratory oil well off Mexico’s southeastern coast. The blowout preventer fails, the wellhead explodes, and oil starts to flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Over the next 10 months, 140 million gallons of oil flows from Ixtoc 1 into the Gulf of Mexico, […]

__1979: __Technical malfunctions allow uncontrollable pressure to build in Ixtoc 1, an exploratory oil well off Mexico's southeastern coast. The blowout preventer fails, the wellhead explodes, and oil starts to flow into the Gulf of Mexico.

Over the next 10 months, 140 million gallons of oil flows from Ixtoc 1 into the Gulf of Mexico, ultimately covering 170 miles of United States shoreline in crude. It was the largest oil spill in history, a record that stood until retreating Iraqi soldiers blew up Kuwait's oil wells in 1991, and the largest in marine history until Deepwater Horizon in 2010.

When Ixtoc's anniversary arrived last June, and the six-week-old Deepwater Horizon disaster showed no signs of abating, a few observers noted the many similarities of the two disasters. The parallels weren't exact: Ixtoc occurred in relatively shallow water, rather than a mile beneath the waves, where extreme pressures and temperatures change oil's fundamental properties.

Also, Ixtoc was operated by a state-run company rather than a multinational corporation which, for all its political influence and sway over corrupt regulators, might be held accountable by government. And whereas little long-term environmental research was conducted after Ixtoc, many researchers intend to study the Deepwater Horizon's impacts for decades to come.

But at a deeper level, the two disasters do resonate. The U.S. government, under industry pressure and in a general climate of deregulation, removed post-Ixtoc restrictions on offshore drilling by 1992. Forgotten was the lesson that human error and misplaced faith in operational procedure could produce large-scale oil catastrophe.

By the time Deepwater Horizon occurred, many people -- including President Barack Obama -- called it unprecedented. The amnesia was almost complete.

After Deepwater Horizon, however, when the Gulf coast had been declared off-limits to experimental deepwater drilling, it took just months for industry to fight back and the moratorium to be lifted. Drilling in the Gulf is proceeding apace. Perhaps the lessons of Ixtoc were learned, but by the wrong people.

Source: Various

Photo: Oil flows from the blown Ixtoc wellhead. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)