How much oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico so far?

Answer 1

Major Spills:

June 3, 1979 : Ixtoc I oil spill. 454,000 - 484,000 tonnes.

April 20, 2010: BP Deepwater Horizon (Macondo Blowout) Oil spill. 492,000 - 627,000 tonnes.

Minor Spills:September 16, 2004: Taylor Energy wells. Hurricane Ivan caused leaks to 26 wells near Louisiana. 62 - 96 tonnes.

June 8, 1990: Mega Borg SE of Galveston. Explosions in a tanker's pump room caused fire and oil spills while transferring oil 16,500 tonnes.

October 23, 2007: Kab 101 - Storms caused damage to Kab 101 causing collisions, leaks resulting in evacuation of oil rigs. 1,869 tonnes.

Total:964,000 - 1,130,000 tonnes of oil

6.6 million - 8 million barrels of oil

275 million - 335 million gallons of oil

1.05 billion - 1.27 billion litres of oil

This answer is based on a using today's date, 09/21/2010. Make your own calculations for dates in the future.

Answer:

The gusher is estimated by the quasi-official Flow Rate Technical Group to be flowing at 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day (wikipedia.org). There are 42 gallons in a barrel, so that's 1.5 to 2.5 million gallons per day.

BP has stated that it is impossible to precisely know the amount of oil that is flowing. There is no place on the well to install a gauge. However, a task force has been established to estimate the volume of oil spilled in the gulf.

See related link.

Answer 2

Approximately 5,000 barrels per day. Since a barrel is equal to 42 gallons, this is the same as 210,000 gallons per day

5,000 a day was a very conservative figure announced by BP. An internal BP memo put a potential figure of 100,000 barrels a day leaking into the Gulf of Mexico should the well deteriorate to the extent that crucial parts fall off.

100,000 * 42 equals a staggering potential of 4,200,000 gallons of oil a day leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.

Given that 62 days have passed since the explosion on the 20th of April up until today, 21-Jun-2010, the maximum potential amount of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico could be anywhere between 100,000,000 to 260,400,000 gallons. Either way its not good.

Congressman Ed Markey has stated that BP may have publicised a figure of 5,000 barrels a day to try and limit their liability, or were "grossly incompetent".

Answer 3

The average daily estimate is 53 thousand barrels (k bbl) per day. No official estimates have been given on a monthly basis. So, if I do the math:

April (10 days) 530 k bbl

May (31 days) 1643 k bbl

June (30 days) 1590 k bbl

July (15 days) 795 k bbl

which adds to 4.6 million bbls, while the official estimate of total barrels spilled is 4.9 million bbls. So these values are not exact.

Answer 4

There have been over 30 industrial oil spills in the Gulf Of Mexico.

There have been two major oil spills in the Gulf Of Mexico:

June 3, 1979 : Ixtoc I oil spill.

April 20, 2010: BP Deepwater Horizon (Macondo Blowout) Oil spill.

Minor spills:

September 16, 2004: Taylor Energy wells. Hurricane Ivan caused leaks to 26 wells near Louisiana.

June 8, 1990: Mega Borg - SE of Galveston. Explosions in a tanker's pump room caused fire and oil spills while transferring oil.

Answer 5

130 miles long and 70 miles wide of oil was spilled.

Answer 6

Best estimate as of today is 210,000 barrels per day (May 7). This figure may change in terms of a "net spillage rate" which is minus what the containment dome captures.

Answer 7

The volume of the amount of Crude oil spilled is up to 100,000 barrels per day.

Answer 8

That still is considered the worst man made disaster at 110 million gallons. We should be passing that amount with the current leak on June 18,2010 and no end appears in site.

Answer 9

way too much.