Oil Spills and its threat to Marine Life

The world has much relied on the crude oil supplies, that are being supplied from the crude oil producing and exporting countries, which are present all around the world. For decades there have been several thousands of these oil wells, which are being dug in almost all places that have prospective deposits of the crude oil. Since the demand for this fossil fuel has been very high during the past several years, these oil exploring companies had turned their attention towards the oil drilling in the oceans. This has indeed given them huge returns, through the very large deposits of the untapped oil which had remained within the oceans for the past several centuries. These oil wells have ever since been dug in their thousands and it is to be noted that, in the Gulf of Mexico alone, there are around more than forty five thousand oil wells, which have been accounted for till now. But the present condition of these oil wells, very well presents before the world community a very alarming scenario. This is due to the fact that, more than half of these oil wells, have been abandoned by the oil drilling companies, since they have reached their critical limits. It is a well known fact that, once the oil well reaches this limit, the oil yield from such wells comes down drastically. As a result, such abandoned oil wells are a constant threat for the marine life and this is correctly pointed out to by the environmental groups like Greenpeace. When an oil well is decommissioned, the oil wells are usually plugged off by concrete and iron castings, so that the oil does not leak out of the oil well. But as time passes by, the situation takes a totally different turn, as the cement and the iron casting starts to give away due to rusting and the high pressures that are quite prevalent deep down the oceans. This results in the subsequent unplugging of the capped oil well and the crude oil leaks and comes out of the oil well, resulting in a huge oil spill in that area. This will endanger the marine life in that part of the ocean, which can result in an irreplaceable loss. There are presently several thousands of such offshore oil rigs, that are present in this world and this poses a constant threat to the environment, due to the possibility of the oil spills that they can produce. Hence the concerned governments have to bring in tougher measures to ensure that, the oil drilling companies take all the precautionary measures that are very well needed to ensure that, the oil well so decommissioned is thoroughly plugged and is secure and poses no threat to the marine life in that particular area in the future. Such steps will surely play a very positive role for the well being of the marine life and will also pacify the environmentalists, regarding the safety concerns that are posed by the oil well spills in the deep oceans.