Names in a given year or area might follow a theme such as beverages (e.g., Cognac), heavenly bodies (e.g., Mars), or even cartoon characters (e.g., Bullwinkle).

[1] It comes from the fictitious cursed town in the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Colombian Nobel Prize-winning writer Gabriel García Márquez.

BP is the operator and principal developer of the oil field with 90% of interest, the final 10% by MOEX Offshore 2007, a unit of Mitsui.

[3][4] Originally, Anadarko Petroleum owned 25% stake but in October 2011 this was transferred to BP as a part of a wider settlement between the companies.

[citation needed] In 1998, a regional shallow hazards survey and study was carried out at the Macondo area by KC Offshore.

[13] The well was successfully sealed off from flow into the sea on August 4, 2010 by a "static kill" (injection of heavy fluids and cement into the wellhead at the mudline).