In its 2009 exploration plan for the Deepwater Horizon well, BP PLC states that the company could handle a spill involving as much as 12.6 million gallons of oil per day, a number 60 times higher than its current estimate of the ongoing Gulf disaster.
In associated documents filed with the U.S. Minerals Management Service, the company says that it would be able to skim 17.6 million gallons of oil a day from the Gulf in the event of a spill.
[…] Mueller also said via e-mail Tuesday that “the spill has stayed about the same size or even shrunk on the water as a result of our response efforts.”
Skytruth.org, a website that monitors environmental problems using satellite imagery, reported Monday that the spill had grown to 10,170 square miles, based on NASA images. John Amos, head of Skytruth, told the Press-Register then that the spill had approximately doubled in size since Friday.
Self-Regulating Business
Susie–
I know a guy who is working on one of the skimmer ships as a Medic. He’s back home on rotation, posting pictures and video here:
http://www.doomers.us/forum2/index.php/topic,67380.0.html
This is what he has to say:
Before filling up our tanks we would periodically decant the oil – to remove the oil – and get a better product mix. This would involve bilging the water that’s usually below the oil to pump off the ship and back in the ocean. Most of the 10 big skimming ships were sent to the incident site, near the leak, to get the good skimmable oil while the coast guard worked the spill further out with dispersant’s and occasionally burning it. We were putting away about 24,000 barrels each day (I don’t have the exact figures) and still not keeping up with the oil (from what I could tell) – so that should tell you something about what’s being released.
BP is in a Perception Management freefall.
–mf