With each new look by scientists, the oil spill just keeps looking worse.
New figures for the blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico show the amount of oil spewing may have been up to twice as much as previously thought, according to scientists consulting with the federal government.
That could mean 160 million liters (1 million barrels) to more than 380 million liters of oil have already fouled the Gulf’s fragile waters, affecting people who live, work and play along the coast from Louisiana to Florida — and perhaps beyond. The Exxon Valdez, the previous worst US oil spill, was about 41 million liters, and the new figures mean Deepwater Horizon is producing an Exxon Valdez size spill every five to 13 days.
PHOTO: AFP
It is the third — and perhaps not the last — time the US government has had to increase its estimate of how much oil is gushing. Trying to clarify what has been a contentious and confusing issue, officials on Thursday gave a wide variety of estimates.
All the new spill estimates are worse than earlier ones — and far more costly for BP, which has seen its stock sink since the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers and triggered the spill. Most of Thursday’s estimates had more oil flowing in an hour than what officials once said was spilling in an entire day.
“This is a nightmare that keeps getting worse every week,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. “We’re finding out more and more information about the extent of the damage ... Clearly we can’t trust BP’s estimates of how much oil is coming out.”
The spill was flowing at a daily rate that could possibly have been as high as 8 million liters, twice the highest number the federal government had been saying, US Geological Survey Director Marcia McNutt, who is coordinating estimates, said on Thursday. However, she said possibly more credible numbers are a bit lower.
The estimate was for the flow before June 3 when a riser pipe was cut and then a cap placed on it. No estimates were given for the amount of oil gushing from the well after the cut, which BP said would increase the flow by about 20 percent. Nor are there estimates since a cap was put on the pipe, which already has collected more than 11 million liters.
The estimates are not nearly complete and different teams have come up with different numbers. A new team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute came in with even higher estimates, ranging from 3.8 million liters a day to 8 million liters. If the high end is true, that means nearly 400 million liters have spilled since April 20.
Even using other numbers that federal officials and scientists call a more reasonable range would have about 238 million liters spilling since the rig explosion. If that amount was put in gallon (3.8-liter) milk jugs, they would line up for nearly 8,850km. That’s the distance from the spill to London, where BP is headquartered, and then continuing on to Rome.
By comparison, the worst peacetime oil spill, 1979’s Ixtoc 1 in Mexico, was about 530 million liters over 10 months. The Gulf spill hasn’t yet reached two months.
As the crude continues to foul the water, Louisiana leaders are rushing to the defense of the oil-and-gas industry and pleading with Washington to immediately bring back offshore drilling. Though angry at BP over the disaster, state officials warn that the US President Barack Obama’s administration’s six-month halt to new permits for deep-sea oil drilling has sent Louisiana’s most lucrative industry into a death spiral.
They contend that drilling is safe overall and the moratorium is a knee-jerk reaction. They worry that it comes at a time when another major Louisiana industry — fishing — has been brought to a standstill by the Gulf mess.
The oil-and-gas industry brings in billions of dollars in revenue for Louisiana and accounts for nearly one-third of the US’ domestic crude production, and it took a heavy blow when the government imposed the moratorium.
“It’s going to put us out of business,” said Glenn LeCompte, owner of a Louisiana catering company that provides food to offshore rigs.
With all sorts of estimates for what’s flowing from the BP well — some even smaller than the amount collected by BP in its containment cap — McNutt said the most credible range at the moment is between 3.1 million liters and 6.3 million liters a day. Then she added that it was “maybe a little bit more.”
However, later on Thursday, the Interior Department said scientists who based their calculations on video say the best estimate for oil flow before June 3 was between 4 million liters a day and 4.7 million liters a day.
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