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BP, scientists split on oil-slick success

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 06/9/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

CHARLIE RIEDEL / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Enlarge Image

Oil from BP's well spills pools against the Louisiana coast along Barataria Bay Tuesday.

NEW ORLEANS -- While BP is capturing more oil from its blown-out well with every passing day, scientists on a team analyzing the flow said Tuesday that the amount of crude still escaping into the Gulf of Mexico is considerably greater than what the government and the company have claimed.

Their assertions -- combined with BP's rush to build a bigger cap and its apparent difficulty in immediately processing all the oil being collected -- have only added to the impression that BP and the government are still floundering in dealing with the catastrophe and may be misleading the public.

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The cap that was put on the ruptured well last week collected about 2.3 million litres of oil on Monday and another 1.25 million litres by noon Tuesday, funneling it to a ship at the surface, said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man on the crisis. That would mean the cap is capturing better than half of the oil, based on the government's estimate that around 2.25 million litres to 4.5 million litres a day are leaking from the bottom of the sea.

The undersea efforts came as BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles struck an upbeat tone about the anticipated progress of the oil containment, saying that the spill "should be down to a relative trickle by Monday or Tuesday."

A team of researchers and government officials assembled by the Coast Guard and run by the director of the U.S. Geological Survey is studying the flow rate and hopes to present its latest findings in the coming days on what is already the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.

Team member and Purdue University engineering professor Steve Wereley said it was a "reasonable conclusion" but not the team's final one to say that the daily flow rate is, in fact, somewhere between 3 million litres)and 6.8 million litres.

"BP is claiming they're capturing the majority of the flow, which I think is going to be proven wrong in short order," Wereley said. "Why don't they show the American public the before-and-after shots?"

He added: "It's strictly an estimation, and they are portraying it as fact."

Researchers also confirmed Tuesday that oil is floating as deep as 3,300 feet below the surface of the gulf in layers that may pose unprecedented cleanup challenges.

Asked about the containment effort and the uncertainties in estimating how much oil is escaping, Allen said: "I have never said this is going well. We're throwing everything we've got."

-- The Associated Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 9, 2010 A10

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