On June 3, 1979, the exploratory well Ixtoc I, drilling in 160 feet of water in the Bay of Campeche, experienced a blowout. The drill pipe was removed. The well lost circulation. Pressure control failed. The blowout preventer was activated. It did not seal.
A column of oil and gas erupted to the surface and ignited. The drilling rig Sedco 135F collapsed into the sea. The fire burned for months, visible from space. Pemex, the Mexican state oil company, began immediate containment efforts. They deployed a sombrero-shaped containment dome. It clogged with gas hydrates and failed. They drilled relief wells. The first intersected the original borehole on November 20. The second was completed in March 1980. The well was finally capped, after 290 days.
The estimated volume of oil released was between 3.0 and 3.3 million barrels. It coated approximately 162 miles of Texas beaches. The cost of the cleanup exceeded $130 million. The ecological impact on marine and coastal life was extensive, though long-term studies were complicated by the region's natural oil seeps.
The event stands as the second-largest accidental marine oil spill in history, exceeded only by the Deepwater Horizon event in the same geological basin thirty-one years later. It demonstrated the technical challenges of deep-water well control. It highlighted the limitations of existing containment technology. It established a precedent for cross-border pollution disputes and response coordination. The response was a sequence of attempted solutions, each meeting with partial success or new complication. The sea was stained for a season. The industry's manual was rewritten.