Blowout could spill 58 million gallons in Arctic!

[Bravo Zulu]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The federal agency overseeing offshore drilling in Alaska says the worst-case scenario for a blowout in the Chukchi Sea lease could result in a spill of more than 58 million gallons of oil into Arctic waters.

That's about a quarter of the Deepwater Horizon spill, which put 206 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. But it's far more than Shell Oil — the major leaseholder in waters off Alaska's northwest coast — says it could handle under its current response plan.

But according to the memo prepared by the Alaska office of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, a worst-case scenario blowout could initially discharge about 2.6 million gallons per day.

Shell has consistently said that the chance of a blowout in the area's relatively shallow waters is minimal.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_arctic_offshore_drilling