The Worst Oil Accident In History
Posted by John Malloy on 08/03/2010
BP’s disastrous oil well explosion sent over 4 million barrels of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard announced Monday, dramatically increasing the most recent federal estimate.
That’s more than 170 million gallons, and makes it the worst accidental oil spill in history — outpacing the 1979 Ixtoc spill, also in the Gulf of Mexico, which lasted for a year.
A federal scientific task force, finally allowed access to the wellhead just prior to it being capped on July 15, took elaborate pressure readings and other measurements to reach its conclusions.
Federal officials now estimate that 53,000 barrels of oil per day were gushing from the well immediately preceding its closure, and that even more was coming out earlier. The well exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers.
Scientists now estimate that a total of 4.9 million barrels were released from the well, with about 800,000 barrels of that successfully recaptured by BP once the first containment cap was installed.
The Obama administration and BP originally estimated the spill at 5,000 barrels a day, and clung to that figure for weeks despite protestations by scientists and environmental groups, and even after a video clip of the spewing pipe exposed that as a wild underestimate.
via Feds Dramatically Increase Oil Spill Estimate, Making BP’s The Worst Oil Accident In History.
Posted by
John Malloy
on 08/03/2010. Filed under
International.
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