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Why did the Deepwater Horizon oil spill not transform the Mexican Gulf’s oil extraction frontier?

Strollo, Siri LU (2025) SGED07 20251
Department of Human Geography
Abstract
This thesis examines how political and corporate actors discursively framed the risks associated with deepwater drilling, following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill 2010. Despite the scale and severity of the disaster, the deepwater oil production in the Mexican Gulf has increased since 2010. Through a Critical Discourse Analysis, using Corpus Linguistics tools, the US Government and BP’s public press releases are analyzed to provide an understanding of language, and its role in legitimizing extractive practices. The findings identify several discursive mechanisms, including minimization, externalization, technocratization and depoliticization of risk. In a larger context, this contributes to a detachment from material reality, and the... (More)
This thesis examines how political and corporate actors discursively framed the risks associated with deepwater drilling, following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill 2010. Despite the scale and severity of the disaster, the deepwater oil production in the Mexican Gulf has increased since 2010. Through a Critical Discourse Analysis, using Corpus Linguistics tools, the US Government and BP’s public press releases are analyzed to provide an understanding of language, and its role in legitimizing extractive practices. The findings identify several discursive mechanisms, including minimization, externalization, technocratization and depoliticization of risk. In a larger context, this contributes to a detachment from material reality, and the accumulation of risks in an increasingly deregulated industry. The study concludes that the constitutive effect of the US Government and BP’s discursive mechanisms was a legitimization of deepwater drilling. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Strollo, Siri LU
supervisor
organization
course
SGED07 20251
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
language
English
id
9200970
date added to LUP
2025-06-24 11:16:54
date last changed
2025-06-24 11:16:54
@misc{9200970,
  abstract     = {{This thesis examines how political and corporate actors discursively framed the risks associated with deepwater drilling, following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill 2010. Despite the scale and severity of the disaster, the deepwater oil production in the Mexican Gulf has increased since 2010. Through a Critical Discourse Analysis, using Corpus Linguistics tools, the US Government and BP’s public press releases are analyzed to provide an understanding of language, and its role in legitimizing extractive practices. The findings identify several discursive mechanisms, including minimization, externalization, technocratization and depoliticization of risk. In a larger context, this contributes to a detachment from material reality, and the accumulation of risks in an increasingly deregulated industry. The study concludes that the constitutive effect of the US Government and BP’s discursive mechanisms was a legitimization of deepwater drilling.}},
  author       = {{Strollo, Siri}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Why did the Deepwater Horizon oil spill not transform the Mexican Gulf’s oil extraction frontier?}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}