At 95,000 bbl/day, Deepsea Horizon "spilled" 11 times Exxon Valdez to date....

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.

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Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/19/94467/engineer-oil-spill-videos-show.html#ixzz0omahqQiu

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Asked to compare the Gulf oil spill to the Exxon Valdez environmental disaster 20 years ago, Allen said that by the time the leaking well is finally capped, the amount of oil discharged could be comparable to the total released by the damaged ship.

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http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/23/coast-guard-commander-explains-defends-relationship-with-bp/?fbid=mdEz5pLtUtz