Scientists say more Gulf oil flowing than thought

[thecrow]

Source: AP/Excite

ROBERT, La. (AP) - Scientists studying the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico now say it's leaking at least twice as much oil and possibly five times as much as original estimates.

U.S. Geological Survey Director Dr. Marcia McNutt is the leader of a team put together to try to figure out how much oil is coming from the well.

She says results are preliminary but two teams using different methods determined the well is leaking at least 504,000 gallons a day. One team said it might be leaking as much as 798,000 gallons and another said that number might be closer to a gallons.

The well blew out when the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20.


BP and the Coast Guard had said since then that about 210,000 gallons a day was flowing.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.



Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20100527/D9FV81380.html

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Unreal

[drm604]

1. Actually it may not be leaking anything at all at the moment.

Let's keep our fingers crossed.

[SpiralHawk]

2. Does this mean the KILL did not work, or ?

does this just apply to the days before the KILL attempt?

Whatever, Rush DraftDodger Limbaugh and his republicorporate cronies are STILL clearly lying: this is not natural, and it's not good.

[Uncle Joe]

4. I believe this is referring to an estimate of what leaked prior to the top kill attempt. n/t

[maddezmom]

6. agree

:)

[joanmj]

10. we are just finding this out now?

[CreekDog]

19. you don't just pump numbers out of your calculator

a lot of people have been working strenuously to estimate the flow.

[Bette Noir]

5. Yeah, it needs clarification.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, thecrow.

[thecrow]

14. Your Welcome

This was an added on bulletin to another story.
But I wonder how all of a sudden they were able to guesstimate that it was up to five times more oil than thought
...was that five the five times more than originally thought?
Obfuscation is rampant.
Did they really stop it?


My guesstimate is that we'll never know anything but the devastation that hasn't even maxxed out yet.
Now they're just getting us ready for that.
Shrimp, anyone? Sushi? Crab claw?
Does this mean I have to eat meat again?
The horror.

[Uncle Joe]

15. I believe the release of this latest guesstimate and the belief that the gusher has been stopped are

related.

Government in general doesn't like to place what it perceives as too much emotional stress on the people.

So they lowball the figure while the crisis; gushing part is still active.

[dipsydoodle]

7. That is directly contradicted by this

Admiral Allen says at this time it appears that no oil is leaking into the Gulf. They are currently pumping mud into the well and crews are waiting for pressures in the well to stabilize before attempting to cement the well shut from the top.

http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=132932&catid=81

[Urban Prairie]

8. What will BP do if the top kill fails?

If they resort to a junk shot, and THAT also fails, it might make it impossible to return to injecting only mud under pressure into the well, while waiting for the two relief wells to complete. Then the crude and gas will resume spewing into the GOM, that is, if what they say is true, and only "mud" is coming out of the leaks now.

So we can trust BP to be honest and truthful now?

:eyes:

[Xipe Totec]

9. more Gulf oil flowing than admitted, not thought

we all thought they were low balling.

[BelgianMadCow]

18. and not "scientists say" but government appointed panel reports goddammit

AP slant :grr:

[xchrom]

11. Recommend

[kestrel91316]

12. Reporters need to stick with ONE unit of measurement. Writing about

barrels of oil sometimes and gallons of oil other times just causes confusion.

[Beam Me Up]

13. When obfuscation is desired, confusion is good. n/t

[ShortnFiery]

16. LIARS! The first "experts" lowballed the leak 15x less.

AP News release

U.S. Geological Survey Director Dr. Marcia McNutt said Thursday that a government task force estimates that anywhere from 500,000 gallons to a million gallons a day has been leaking.

The new government estimate means at least 19 million gallons and maybe as much as 39 million gallons have leaked in the five weeks since an oil rig exploded and sank.

[BelgianMadCow]

17. "based on the midpoint ...the well may have leaked about 527,000 barrels, more than double the Exxon

the Exxon Valdez’s 257,000-barrel spill."

this from Bloomberg http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-27/bp-well-may-have-leaked-more-than-twice-exxon-valdez-update1-.html

I read elsewhere the panel used two methods, and the 12000 to 19000 bopd is the overlap range between the two. Lowest was 5000, highest 25000. The "more than twice" part is based on the midpoint between 12 and 19000...

If the top kill works, which we all hope, there won't be anymore accurate measurements will there...