BP Raising Spill Figures

Since the April 20th explosion of the Deepwater Horizon that caused a massive gusher in the Gulf, no definite resolution for this environmental disaster has been set in place. The BP oil leak is now in its 63rd day and is not expected to be stopped until August or later.

According to an internal BP document released Sunday, June 20, by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, BP believes that the worst-case scenario could be higher. The document, submitted in May, maintains the 60,000 barrel estimate, but stipulates that if the "blowout preventer and wellhead are removed and if we have incorrectly modeled the restrictions, the rate could be as high as 100,000 barrels a day." This estimate of 100,000 barrels is equivalent to 4.2 million gallons of oil leaking into the ocean each day.

The figure is the highest yet to surface regarding the leaking oil well. At the disaster's outset, BP claimed the leak was about 1,000 barrels a day, a number it later revised to 5,000 and then much higher. BP told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that the worst-case scenario was 60,000 barrels (2.5 million gallons) a day, lower than what the document states.

Drilling crews are grinding ever deeper to build the relief wells that are the best hope of stopping the massive oil leak at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. The crew of Transocean's Development Driller II is set to start pouring cement to firm up a section of metal casing lining one of two relief wells. BP and US government officials say the wells are the best option for cutting off the gusher that has spilled as much as 125 million gallons into the Gulf  to this date.