On April 21 , 2010 , the '' Deepwater Horizon '' platform , 52 miles off-shore of Venice , Louisiana , ( property of Transocean and leased to BP ) exploded , killing 11 people , and sank two days later . The resulting undersea gusher , conservatively estimated to exceed as of early June , 2010 , became the worst oil spill in US history , eclipsing the Exxon Valdez oil spill
exploded
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Oil platform