Posted on 05/19/2010 5:03:27 PM PDT by FootBall
Gulf oil spill leak now pegged at 95,000 barrels a day Renee Schoof - McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — The latest video footage of the leaking Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico show that oil is escaping at the rate of 95,000 barrels — 4 million gallons — a day, nearly 20 times greater than the 5,000 barrel a day estimate BP and government scientists have been citing for nearly three weeks, an engineering professor told a congressional hearing Wednesday.
The figure of 5,000 barrels a day or 210,000 gallons that BP and the federal government have been using for weeks is based on satellite observations of the surface. But NASA’s best satellite-based instruments can’t see deep into the waters of the Gulf, where much of the oil from the gusher 5,000 feet below the surface seems to be floating.
Federal officials testified in hearings on Tuesday that they were putting together a crack team to get to the bottom of big the spill really is. That effort comes a month after the April 20 explosion that triggered the unprecedented oil spill in deep waters of the United States. Experts say knowing that amount is crucial for efforts to cap the broken wellhead and to monitor and clean up the oil.
Steve Wereley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, earlier this month made simple calculations from a video BP released on May 12 and came up with a flow of 70,000 barrels a day, NPR reported last week. Werely on Wednesday told a House Commerce and Energy Committee subcommittee that his calculations of two leaks that show up on videos BP released on Tuesday showed 70,000 barrels from one leak and 25,000 from the other.
He said the calculation could be off by 20 percent — meaning the spill could range from between 76,000 to 104,000 barrels a day. But Wereley said he would need to see videos that were not compressed and showed the flow over a longer period so that it would be possible to get a better calculation of the mix of oil and gas from the wellhead.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who chaired the hearing, promised to get that information from BP and make it possible for other scientists to use other methods to get a more accurate calculation of the size of the spill.
“The true extent of this spill remains a mystery,” Markey said. He said the BP had said that the flow rate was not relevant to the cleanup effort. “This faulty logic that BP is using is … raising concerns that they are hiding the full extent of the damage of this leak.”
This POS well could have been exploded shut or nuked shut weeks ago. Just drill down 300 ft and explode. Collapse that well. High explosives would do it
And meanwhile we’re throwing scientists off the team assembled to work on the problem because they don’t like homosexuals.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2516982/posts
I smell BS. BP reported today that over 50% of the reported discharge was methane and are recovering 3000 Barrels a day.
“BP reported today that over 50% of the reported discharge was methane and are recovering 3000 Barrels a day.”
Well BP says 5000 barrels per day is leaking. So they almost got this under control. ??
Hmmmm....Why are they going to kill the well this weekend?
Doesn’t make sense. Something is fishy.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-16/nuke-the-oil-spill/
See what this guy says about demolishing this gusher
No way that is real.
A lot of wells have to be pumped. Once properly plumbed I’m fairly certain they can take what it will push. Think about it for a second. The more oil the better the margin for that well. You would plumb a well to give you 100% of possible output and then pump it hard as the pressure/production fell off.
I’m more pissed that BP isn’t turning that oil into 110 octane fuel for my 68 Camaro !
Looks to me like there is plenty of oil under the gulf.
Drill Baby Drill !
I know. BP doesn’t want to lose it so they try iffy things day after day. Now we have a real disaster that has no end in sight.
95,000 barrels per day = 4 million gals per day
30 days since the spill began = 120 million total gals spilled so far
gals of water in the Gulf of Mexico = 6.43 x 10-17th
assume that the spill only affects 1/10th of the Gulf
calculate the ratio between the volume of 1/10th of the water in the Gulf versus 120 million gals
1 drop of water = .05 ml
an olympic size pool is about 87,000 cubic feet in volume
a comparable pollution ratio is to add around 1.6 drops of oil to an olympic pool over 30 days time
The 5000 barrel per day estimate was confirmed by the government. After BP x-rayed the blowout preventer, the press reported that the oil was flowing through a 1/4” crevice at one of the preventer’s ram seals. As the oil flows into the riser at much lower pressure, natural gas comes out the liquid oil and expands rapidly. If the mass of the flow is half gas, the gas would be tens of times the volume of the liquid oil. In addition, there is a lot of water swirling around in the plume. At the surface they are reportedly collecting 2000 Barrels of oil per day (11,000 cubic feet) and 1,500,000 cubic feet of gas. The volume ratio is 150/1 (gas to oil) at atmospheric pressure. Not trying minimize the spill and the effects, but in January, NASA reported that every day, 1500 barrels of crude oil seeps into the gulf of Mexico from about 600 locations. The Indians gathered tar from the Texas beaches.
“At the surface they are reportedly collecting 2000 Barrels of oil per day (11,000 cubic feet) and 1,500,000 cubic feet of gas. The volume ratio is 150/1 (gas to oil) at atmospheric pressure”
What is the ratio of (compressed gas) to (liquid oil) at 2200 pound per square inch pressure 5000 feet down? With the above info?
The correct pollution ratio is to add one drop of oil to a modest backyard sized pool, 10 ft wide, 20 ft long, avg depth of 5 ft (vol= 1,000 cubic feet), over 30 days time.
What do your friends and family say about demolishing the well? Your economy is threatened all because BP doesn’t want to kill this well and start all over again. It is cheaper for them to pay for all the ruined oyster beds fishing grounds etc.....
Because these is such a mega oil reservoir down there
Everybody I know wants them to plug the hole. The people I know aren’t against offshore drilling but if there is a problem they expect it to be fixed and the damages dealt with. However, I expect the anger to get worse now that the heavy oil is hitting the coast and decimating the seafood industry.
Everybody I know wants them to plug the hole>>>>>>>>>
Forget plugging it. I want then to demolish that hole and write it off and never bother using it or repairing it. That is an 800 million dollar hole so another one will cost about the same
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