Posted on 06/15/2010 2:37:24 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW ORLEANS Scientists provided a new estimate for the size of the Gulf oil spill on Tuesday that indicates it could be worse than previously thought.
A government panel of scientists said that the ruptured well is leaking between 1.47 million and 2.52 million gallons a day of oil. That is an increase over previous estimates that put the maximum size of the spill at 2.1 million gallons per day.
"This estimate brings together several scientific methodologies and the latest information from the sea floor, and represents a significant step forward in our effort to put a number on the oil that is escaping from BP's well," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement.
The latest numbers reflect an increase in the flow that scientists believe happened after undersea robots earlier this month cut off a kinked pipe near the sea floor that was believed to be restricting the flow of oil, just as a bend in a garden hose reduces water flow. BP officials has estimated that cutting the kinked pipe likely increased the flow by up 20 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
It could happen then or who knows ?
The Bureaucrats are involved now. Everything they do, makes the problem worse.
I read a month ago that they drilled this well into a field deemed larger than the fields in Saudi Arabia.
“The Bureaucrats are involved now...”
GWB let the banksters pick our pockets so cleanly in September ‘08, that the Enviroweenies are lining up to “get theirs” now...
If the cement plug in the wellbore was bad, then there was initially a small channel in the plug that oil and gas could leak through. No doubt, the channel through the plug has increased in size over time, as the oil carrying sand and other solids with it erodes the plug.
There are 42 gallons in a stock tank barrel, the standard measure of crude oil.
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