Leaked Memo Gulf Oil Spill of 2010 Could Leak over 1,000,000 Gallons Oil Per Day

  Posted by - April 30, 2010 at 10:00 pm - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog
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Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano uses a map of the Gulf of Mexico during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Thursday, April 29, 2010. A leaked memorandum obtained by the Press-Register on the unfolding spill disaster in the Gulf makes clear the Coast Guard now fears the Deepwater Horizon well site could be on the verge of becoming an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.

Leaked Government memo says Gulf Oil Spill of 2010 may start dumping millions of gallons per day.

Breaking News: A leaked classified government memo reports two new breaches in the Deepwater Horizon Oil well and the devastation of the Gulf Oil Spill of 2010 may raise by an order of a magnitude. The leaked memo states the condition of the well is rapidly deteriorating and left unchecked over well over 30,000 barrels oil per day can easily start leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.

The document labeled “not for public” makes clear the Coast Guard now fears the well could become an unchecked gusher. Asked Friday to comment on the document, NOAA spokesman Scott Smullen said that the additional leaks described were reported to the public late Wednesday night. Regarding the possibility of the spill becoming an order of magnitude larger, Smullen said, “I’m letting the document you have speak for itself.”

In scientific circles, an order of magnitude means something is 10 times larger. In this case, an order of magnitude higher would mean the volume of oil coming from the well could be 10 times higher than the 5,000 barrels a day coming out now. That would mean 50,000 barrels a day, or 2.1 million gallons a day. It appears the new leaks mentioned in the Wednesday release are the leaks reported to the public late Wednesday nigh.

The worst-case scenario for the broken and leaking well pouring oil into the Gulf of Mexico would be the loss of the wellhead and kinked piping currently restricting the flow to 5,000 barrels — or 210,000 gallons — per day.

If the wellhead is lost, oil could leave the well at a much greater rate.

“Typically, a very good well in the Gulf can produce 30,000 barrels a day, but that’s under control. I have no idea what an uncontrolled release could be,” said Stephen Sears, chairman of the petroleum engineering department at Louisiana State University.

On Thursday, federal officials said they were preparing for the worst-case scenario but didn’t elaborate. Using current publicly available data scientist and marine experts are already predicting the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill of 2010 will circle Florida and make its way up the East Coast.

However, this worse case doesn’t even come close to the scenario feared in the leaked memo which has a much further bleak outlook.

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