Offshore oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico (United States) and part of offshore Alabama, since 1995. In March 2010, President Barack Obama announced plans to allow drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, in federal waters greater than from the coasts of Alabama and Florida. In December 2010, following the "Deepwater Horizon" oil spill, the Obama administration reversed its plans to open the eastern Gulf, and imposed a moratorium on new drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico for at least seven years. The "Deepwater Horizon" oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill, the BP oil disaster, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the Macondo
Mega Borg Oil Spill Mega Borg Oil Spill The "Mega Borg" Oil Spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico on June 8, 1990, roughly 50 miles off the coast of Texas, when the oil tanker "Mega Borg" caught on fire and exploded. The cleanup was one of the first practical uses of bioremediation. At 11:30 PM on the evening of Saturday June 8, 1990, an explosion in the cargo room of the Norwegian oil tanker the "Mega Borg" “ruptured the bulkhead between the pump room and the engine room”, causing the ship to catch fire and begin to leak oil. The 853-foot-long, 15-year-old vessel