BP Horizon was Operating at the Outer Limits of Today's Technology

When the accident occurred BP was operating the Horizon rig at the outer limits of the industry’s technology. The wellhead was in water with a depth of 5,000 feet and the well extended another 13,000 feet beneath the ocean floor. At this depth, only remotely controlled robotic arms can be used to make repairs to damaged equipment since the deepest scuba dive ever recorded was only 1,044 feet deep (which greatly exceeds the the normal working depth for any commercial diver). In fact, more people have been on the surface of the moon than have scuba dived below 800 feet.

In their exploration plan and environmental impact analysis filed with the federal government in February 2009, BP said it had the capability to handle a "worst-case scenario" at the site, which the document described as a leak of 162,000 barrels (8.8 million gallons) per day from an uncontrolled blowout. At the current estimate of 5,000 barrels per day one has to wonder, given BP's ineffective handling of the situation, were they lying or just stupid when they made the statement that a spill 32 times larger than the current one would be "no problem".