Gulf oil leak could be spilling upto 4.2 million gallons daily

The Gulf of Mexico oil leak from the doomed Deepwater Horizon oil rig could be spilling upto 4.2 million gallons daily in the Gulf sea region, yes, you did read that correctly, that’s potentially 4,200,000 gallons of crude oil, daily.

Dr Ira Leifer, a researcher in the Marine Science Institute at the University of California who is a member of the technical group, said that the oil company’s operation to cut the leaking pipe and cap it with a new containment device last week may have increased the surge of oil not by 20 per cent, as BP and the US Government had warned may happen, but several times over.

“How much larger I don’t know, but let’s just quote BP,” he said, referring to the 100,000 barrel rate (or 4.2 million gallons per day) that BP executives indicated weeks ago would be their worst case scenario.

“In the data I’ve seen, there’s nothing inconsistent with BP’s worst case scenario. BP’s “top kill” effort two weeks ago to stem the flow by firing mud and junk into the well appeared to have stepped up the rate of the leak.” said Dr Ira Leifer.

Meanwhile, a US government chaired group are planning to shortly come up with a revised estimate of the flow of oil leaking into the Gulf from the BP oil spill, a US Interior Department official said on Wednesday.

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