May 08 2010

Already Passed The Exxon Valdez?

This guy thinks the Exxon Valdez has already been eclipsed:

http://www.gulfbase.org/person…

Ian McDonald, a biological oceanographer, strongly believes that the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill could have already surpassed the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He has categorically denied the estimates of NOAA and BP, which stands at 5000 barrels per day. According to his study and analysis, we are looking at a spill of around 25,000 barrels per day, rather than the 5,000 barrels estimated by BP. If his estimates are accurate, then we are facing a much bigger economical and threat than is currently being predicted.

http://apexnewsnetwork.com/283…

I could f’ing cry.

No surprise to anyone here I suppose, but – the attempt to put a box or dome over the first leak has apparently failed–ice crystals have blocked the whole mess up, and they’ve dropped the thing on the bottom, while they ‘re-assess’.    

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    • Edger on May 9, 2010 at 04:43
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    …indicates that the oil may be leaking at a rate of 25,000 barrels a day, dwarfing the figure of 5,000 barrels that US officials and the British oil giant BP have used in recent days.

    That would mean that some nine million gallons may already have escaped from the underwater well following the April 20 explosion that killed 11 rig workers. It suggests the disaster will almost certainly prove greater than the Exxon Valdez tanker spill off Alaska in 1989, which released 11 million gallons and was the worst previous spill at sea.

    —UK Telegraph, May 01, 2010

    Nine million gallons by May 01.

    1 barrel of crude oil = 42 US gallons.

    So if it is leaking at 25,000 barrels a day, add another 1,050,000 gallons per day since May 01 = 7,350,000 gallons.

    Plus the 9 million leaked by May 01 = 16,350,000 gallons, so far…

    But maybe it’s actually less so far than than the Exxon Valdez… Is there any reason to believe that Exxon didn’t lie about the 11 million, and that it might have been much more?

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