Oil Leak Could Be Flowing at a Rate of 3.4 Million Gallons a Day

[tekisui]

Source: Times Online

Scientists find vast unreported oil leak from Deepwater Horizon

A plume of oil 10 miles (16km) long, three miles wide and 300ft thick is pouring into the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

The plume is one of a number that scientists have found gushing into the sea a mile underwater, increasing concerns that the size of the spill could be thousands of times larger than has been previously calculated, according to The New York Times.

“There’s a shocking amount of oil in the deep water, relative to what you see in the surface water,” said Samantha Joye, from the University of Georgia, who is involved in one of the first scientific missions to gather information from the spill. “There’s a tremendous amount of oil in multiple layers, three or four or five layers deep in the water column,” Dr Joye told the newspaper.

After studying footage of the gushing oil scientists on board the research vessel Pelican, which is gathering samples and information about the spill, said that it could be flowing at a rate of 25,000 to 80,000 barrels of oil a day, or 3.4 million gallons a day. The flow rate is currently calculated at 5,000 barrels a day.

The vast amounts of oil pouring from the rig, which exploded on April 20 killing 11 people, is depleting the oxygen in the immediate area, raising fears that it could kill most of the sea life near the plumes. Oxygen levels have already dropped by 30 per cent near some of the plumes.

“If you keep those kinds of rates up, you could draw the oxygen down to very low levels that are dangerous to animals in a couple of months,” she said. “That is alarming.”

News of the plumes came as the Obama Administration increased pressure on BP with a demand for “immediate public clarification” from Tony Hayward, the chief executive, over the company’s intentions about paying the costs associated with the spill. “The public has a right to a clear understanding of BP’s commitment to redress all the damage that has occurred or that will occur in the future as a result of the spill,” said Ken Salazar, the Interior Secretary.

more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7127904.ece

[geckosfeet]

1. Nightmare scenario - What if....

Is it possible that hurricanes and/or rough weather could whip up the sea water and create oil saturated aerosols that disperse this stuff over every state east of the Mississippi?

Another try with the tube to stop Gulf oil

Giant Plumes of Oil Found Forming Under Gulf of Mexico

Another Snag Hits As Oil Plumes Form Underwater

[izquierdista]

4. Actually, that might help

Dispersing it up into little droplets with high surface area will make the oil easier to metabolize by bacteria and fungi.

[marylanddem]

2. Beyond horrible

BP's efforts to "stop" the gusher are, imho, being put on for show. They don't want to stop the gusher, they want to "siphon" it. I hope to God I'm wrong.

[TheWraith]

6. You are wrong.

You can't extract usable oil from this situation once it's been spread out and mixed with seawater.

[Statistical]

15. You are wrong.

Anyways that would be less scary than the reality .... so far they can't stop it and nobody is sure they ever will be able to.

BP has spent $450 million on cleanup.

A brand new full functional well costs about $100 million.

Any oil they retreive has cost them a magnitude more than the street value and since it is contaminated with seawater likely will just be pumped into depleted oil fields to get rid of it.

The idea that BP is going through all this (and millions upon millions of dollars) and risking losing future leases just to collect a bunch of near worthless contaminated oil doesn't even make sense.

If BP could have stopped the leak on day 1 they would. They risk losing the oil lease and the trillion dollars worth of oil underneath it. Any oil field as big as this one eventually will have 4,5,6 a dozen wells into the same field.

[jgraz]

3. We should probably use the word "erupting" instead of "flowing"

Just saying. :nuke:

[Dappleganger]

17. That's what I've been telling anyone who will listen.

It's like trying to cap a freaking volcano.

[flyarm]

5. I read about this a couple days ago by a reliable source in Fla..

BP should be taken away from recovery and anything to do with this and bring in the top scientists throughout the world..and stop this charade ..BP doesn't want this stopped ..they could give a rats fucking shit..get them the fuck out of this ..just give them the dam bill for it.And put their top people on trial for this crime!..then get their asses into jail.

The charade they are performing is a disgrace..they have kept enviorn peolpe away form doing what they do best..

they are criminals ..treat them as such.

[Duppers]

7. +1000

nt

[truedelphi]

11. That is it exactly. n/t

[amborin]

8. kr

[Rex]

9. Huge plumes, miles long, are now roaming the open seas!

People have posted that this could go on for years. Does anyone know how big a pocket of oil they hit? Why is the WH just sitting back and letting BP guess at how to fix this problem? Do they not a department that should be thinking about these things? Anyone but FEMA.

[lunatica]

16. Between 3 billion and 15 billion barrels of oil

Here's an article from 2006

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14678206/

Oil companies see big Gulf of Mexico discovery
Tests suggest huge oil field found in deep waters

WASHINGTON - A trio of oil companies led by Chevron Corp. has tapped a petroleum pool deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico that could boost the nation’s reserves by more than 50 percent. A test well indicates it could be the biggest new domestic oil discovery since Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay a generation ago.

(snip)
Chevron on Tuesday estimated the 300-square-mile region where its test well sits could hold between 3 billion and 15 billion barrels of oil and natural gas liquids. The U.S. consumes roughly 5.7 billion barrels of crude-oil in a year.

[laughingliberal]

10. K & R nt

[leftstreet]

12. K&R

[Cetacea]

13. K & R nt

[AllentownJake]

14. Of course the government and BP are lying

It is in their best interest to do so, and the populace is stupid.

[lunatica]

18. The people I talk to are more stunned and shocked than stupid

Especially when they find out that what they thought was happening was that it was just a spill. That's why the media keeps calling it a 'spill'. Strategerical catapultin of the propaganda. Wink, smirk, giggle. Strut.

[KharmaTrain]

19. Lying? I'd Say Clueless

IMO, One million gallons or just one gallon a day is too much. I honestly don't think BP has a clue as to what's really going on there, this is literally "unchartered" waters. When they compare this to the Exxon-Valdez, that's disengenuous as we did have an idea of how much oil was in that tanker and there was a finite amount that, while devestating, there was an end...in this case we have no idea how much oil and gas is under that hole and what it'll take to plug that gusher.

No doubt BP has lied and downplayed this disaster and to their detriment...but I think they went one oil well too far...more certain of their "technology" on their own ineptitude or concerned about anything but their own PR. Doesn't seem to be working. As far as the government, I don't see them lying as much as in the dark like the rest of us. I'm sure if BP is playing games with us, they've doubled down in how they deal with the government; prefering to lie and let the chips fall where they may than to admit they're over their heads.

The populace isn't stupid...just confused. I see a lot of anger building out there against BP as well as the entire "drill baby drill" culture.

Cheers...

[AllentownJake]

20. They tried to hide the video of the leaks in the pipe

They weren't trying to hide it from the regular populace. They were trying to hide it from independent scientist who could take a look at what was going on and figure out the extent of the oil going into the gulf.

The government will cover for BP till they can't cover anymore.

[KharmaTrain]

21. Again...They're Clueless

I'm not disputing the video being withheld, but it is BP, not the government who mislead on that. Salazar was and appears to still be clueless about what's going on, but again, I don't think anyone here has a handle on how bad things are or what it will take to shut it down.

We're already seeing a wide range of claims by "Independent" scientists whose guestimates are as good as yours or mine. And, of course, the corporate media throws all sorts of numbers and "theories" out there that only muddle things further.

There's only so much one can cover up when the oil is lapping up on the marshes and beaches or from satellite pictures. If the government was really trying to cover up, we wouldn't have had those pictures. Just think of how a cheney or mccain would have dealt with this situation...

[AllentownJake]

23. Very true

but you and I both know, as this goes on, people involved are moving assets to safer places that might not be as easily accesible to penalties for incompetence or criminal behavior. Delay is always the game in something like this. ;-)

[KharmaTrain]

24. That's The Real Pisser Here...

I just heard the newsbabe on C-SPIN claim that BP is now "recovering" about 1,000 gallons per day than used the 5,000 gallon figure to make it sound like there had been some progress. We know this is bullshit, but due to all the numbers circulating out there, it all gets muddled and that's surely the way BP likes it.

BP doesn't have to move its assets to a safer place, they're already there. Note that our major oil companies like BP (British) and Shell (Dutch) have long taken advantage of their "off shore" status. We'll see how this plays into their liability...which I'm sure it is. Plus they'll try to pass the buck to TransOcean and Halliburton (and visa versa) and the government. While I think highly of our legal system, we know that BP will job it every step they can. It took over 20 years to settle out many of the claims with the Exxon-Valdez...all the while the company continued to rack up big profits while inflation minimized the real amount they paid. $1 million in 2005 wasn't the same as it was in 1990. I wouldn't be surprised if BP sets up some trust that drips interest to pay the fines and settlements and the company doesn't feel a thing.

That said, we still have no idea what the ultimate costs will be here. Or if the anger will rise up to do some serious damage to BP's bottom line, but you know they're looking at CYA and misleading anyone as long as they can.

[AllentownJake]

27. The funny thing is

People can boycott BP gas stations. The way the industry is set up, there probably isn't even BP refined or drilled gas at the station.

They can go to a Hess station and be buying BP gas.

So, other than the political ramifications, economic consequences other than their convienence store operations, are going to be few and far between.

[spanone]

22. don't worry, a four inch pipe is gonna save the gulf

:sarcasm:

[tekisui]

25. Yeah, they are siphoning off about a fifth of their estimate.

Which, of course, is way off the mark.

[blindpig]

26. It's all about the bottom line.

Nothing, nothing else matters to these people, that is the environment that they live in.

The environment that we live in, that is an 'external' to them.

Kill Capitalism.

Expropriate without compensation.

k&r