GULF OIL LEAK MAY BE 14X WORSE THAN OFFICIAL ESTIMATE
May 14th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
U.S. Representative Edward Markey said he is concerned BP Plc’s well in the Gulf of Mexico may be leaking as much as 70,000 barrels of oil a day, compared with previous estimates of 5,000 barrels.
Underestimating the spill may hinder efforts to control it, the Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement yesterday. Markey said he plans to investigate how much oil is gushing into the Gulf and send a letter to the company asking about their methods of determining the size.
“If you don’t understand the scope of the problem, the capacity to find the answer is severely compromised,” said Markey, chairman of a House Energy and Environment subcommittee. Estimates have risen to as much as 70,000 barrels a day, he said, citing “independent analyses reported in the media.”
BP’s Macondo well, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) off Louisiana’s coast, began leaking oil after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded on April 20. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has picked a team of scientists to help BP and industry experts come up with back-up plans to stop the leak. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has estimated the well is spewing 5,000 barrels of oil a day.
On the Surface
“The assessment that is being used remains 5,000 barrels of oil a day, as estimated by NOAA,” Toby Odone, a spokesman for the London-based company, said by telephone today. Measuring the exact volume of oil leaking from the well is difficult and estimates are based on what appears on the surface, he said.
National Public Radio reported May 13 that 70,000 barrels of oil a day may be spilling into the sea, relying on analysis by an associate professor at Purdue University in Indiana. The accident may be worse than the Exxon Valdez incident of 1989, NPR said.
BP’s effort to use robots on the seafloor to close off the well failed, and a 40-foot steel structure meant to cap the leak was scuttled when the containment box became clogged with an icy slush of seawater and gas. The company is deliberating between using a smaller containment chamber to control the well or inserting a tube directly into the leaking pipe to channel the oil.
About $450 million has been spent on cleanup operations and settlements, or an average of $20 million a day since the rig exploded, up from the previous $6-million-a-day estimate. BP is also considering injecting debris including tire pieces and golf balls to seal the top of the well.
All of the options are interim measures to reduce the spill while the oil company drills a relief well that will permanently plug the leak. Drilling began on May 2 and will take about 90 days, the company has said.
all right…so I’m probably really off base here but I’ve seen pictures of this underwater spill and it doesn’t look all that challenging to simply slip another pipe over the broken pipe that is currently spewing oil into the gulf. I get that it’s in deep water but they laid the pipe to begin with so I assume they have the proper tech to lay pipe underwater. It really looks to me like a simple plumbing problem..I’ve refitted underground pipe that was broken and still flowing and yes it was a pain in the ass and you get awful muddy, but it wasn’t rocket science. How do they lay the pipe to begin with and haven’t they had to fix leaks before?
I’d love to hear from people smarter than me why this hasn’t been fixed yet. I know I wear tin foil most of the time but it seems to me that for some reason this is a leak that someone or group doesn’t want to see fixed. Please tell me I’m wrong..all the best everyone and thanks for the site Kevin.
X “Barrels of oil a day” are meaningless to most people.
For a bit of perspective lets work out how much that is in liters and what area that amount of oil could cover.
One barrel of oil is approx 160 liters – multiply this by the daily amount of 70,000 barrels and you get 1,120,000 liters per day.
It’s 102 days from the start to when they think they will finish drilling. In total 114,240,000 liters of oil.
It’s a bit harder to work out the surface area the spill could cover – but given that it can spread at 0.003mm in thickness that’s a huge area.
@Scarletfire – I have the same frustrations. This is really off the wall, I know. But I’ve read lots of weird theories about this oil spill, and one of them is that the “only thing that will solve it if is we explode a nuke to fix it.” Yes indeed. I have my suspiscions thats this theory is way out of left field, but why bring in Secretary Chu? The Department of Energy has been gutting its funding for oil exploration on land since Clinton. Methinks funding for offshore is all Department of Interior.
I don’t know, who does? Meanwhile the spill isn’t even at half mast yet. Columns of oil a mile deep or more are going to take time to reach the surface. Before this thing is plugged I wonder if will be the size of Pennsylvania?
And Kevin, you are such a smart alec.
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Unfortunately, chemicals ontop of chemicals is only killing more and more life on earth.
May the gods and goddesses help us. Many sins need to be brought into the light through atonement.
The Congressional testimony this past week was not encouraging. When no on is willing to take responsibility, everyone will lose. Not the least, the ecosystem of the Gulf. God/dess why this lesson, now?