Drilling Operations started 7th October 2009 from Transocean Marianas. Operations halted when the Marianas was damaged by Hurricane Ida on 29th November 2009 by which time they had spudded in and succeeded in drilling to a depth below seabed of 4023 feet.

Drilling operation resumed by Transocean Deepwater Horizon on 8th February 2010. As production casing was being run and the well being prepared for temporary abandonment when the "Blow-Out" occurred it would be safe to assume that drilling operations had halted before 20th April 2010 but to get to a point where the well could be handed over for production it took 3 months.

BP ordered the drilling of two relief wells to kill the Macondo Well the first started 2nd May 2010 by Transocean Development Driller III and the second on 16th May 2010 by Transocean GSF Development Driller II. Estimated time to drill relief wells 3 months.

The timings reported above would lead to suggest that Deepwater Horizon DID NOT drill two separate holes. Timing suggests that they did in fact kick-out from the first to reach target depth. The drilling played no part at all in the blow-out, nor was it a factor in the accident or the spill.