20,000 BARRELS A DAY? 40,000? 50,000!?! (HOW OIL AND ANGER MIX)

Anger rises along with spill size estimate
Jennifer Latson and Jennifer A. Dlouhy, June 10, 2010 (Houston Chronicle)

"Oil is flowing from a blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico almost twice as fast — at minimum — as estimated previously, although some of it is now being captured…[E]stimates now range from 20,000 to 40,000 barrels per day…well above the most recent estimate of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels per day, and vastly higher than BP's original reckoning of 1,000 to 5,000 barrels…

"The high end of the estimate, 40,000 barrels, comes to almost 1.7 million gallons a day. The new numbers estimate the rate before underwater robots cut a bent riser pipe…[That] temporarily increased the total flow, but BP now is catching more than 15,000 barrels a day through a new pipe attached to the severed riser…BP is preparing in the next few days to siphon more oil from the bleeding well…[Also,] the company agreed to speed up payments to businesses and residents…responding to public outcry and government pressure…[It] promised to take into account that many of the industries most affected by the spill — including fishing and tourism — make the bulk of their income in the summer months…"



"BP and the Obama administration [face] mounting frustration and anger…as lawmakers and Gulf Coast officials complained that efforts to clean up the crude are being stalled by a byzantine response operation…Billy Nungesser, the Republican president of Plaquemines Parish, La. [said he has] spent more time fighting the officials of BP and the Coast Guard than fighting the oil…David Camardelle, the Democratic mayor of Grand Isle, La., said his hands are tied while he waits for BP and the Coast Guard to sign off on cleanup plans…

"…[They say it takes] more than five days to navigate cleanup requests around layers of approval and other hurdles and get them to the top Coast Guard officials coordinating the response…[Lawmakers are making] fresh comparisons to the government's widely criticized response when Hurricane Katrina hit the New Orleans area in 2005…[T]he Coast Guard is working to make sure local officials have control over some issues in their backyards, such as decisions involving boom being deployed to trap floating oil…"

This animation of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was created using actual overflight information and forecast models from the NOAA and Unified Command.

The red dot is the location of the Deepwater Horizon oil well, which exploded on April 20, releasing oil into the Gulf near the Louisiana coast that has yet to be contained. Eleven rig workers died in the explosion.

From NOLA.com

"Forty miles off the Louisiana coast, meanwhile, BP engineers continued to draw oil to the surface through the pipe installed last week, and worked on systems they expect will capture more of the oil…[A]nother pumping system…[could] draw as much as an additional 10,000 barrels per day…BP engineers are also working on a system that could lift oil to tankers in rough seas, and could be disconnected temporarily if a hurricane threatened.

"The new flow estimates…were the work of three teams of scientists employed by the federal government, universities and independent research institutions. The estimates varied broadly...to as high as 50,000 barrels…[but] the mid-range figures, from 20,000 to 40,000 barrels per day, were the most likely…"