Oil gushing from the BP well

While not exactly earthshaking, a draft study released today by the staff of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, may be the source of some satisfaction to the many Americans who remain skeptical of the government’s response to the disaster:

By initially underestimating the amount of oil flow and then, at the end of the summer, appearing to underestimate the amount of oil remaining in the Gulf, the federal government created the impression that it was either not fully competent to handle the spill or not fully candid with the American people about the scope of the problem.

The draft report (below) is one of four released by the commission today. The others are:

• Decision-Making Within the Unified Command
• The Use of Surface and Subsea Dispersants During the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
• The Challenges of Oil Spill Response in the Arctic

The weekly update issued by the government’s Unified Area Command didn’t comment on the studies.

The Amount and Fate of the Oil

The Amount and Fate of the Oil. Working Paper #3 -

Mariner Energy platform fire (KLYF TV)

An oil and natural gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico exploded Thursday mid-morning and continues to burn this afternoon. According to the Coast Guard, all workers are safe and currently awaking transfer from a neighboring platform to an onshore hospital. The platform is owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy and operates in approximately 340 feet of water, some 100 miles south of Louisiana and 200 miles west of where the BP Deepwater Horizon well exploded in April, killing 11 and spewing at least five millions barrels of crude oil into the Gulf.

Early reports that the Mariner platform was not producing oil and gas at the time of the explosion appear to be false. According to a statement released by the company today, the rig was producing a daily average of 1,400 barrels of oil per day and 9 million cubic feet of natural gas.

The Coast Guard is now reporting the presence of an oil sheen in the waters around the Mariner platform, measuring a mile long and 100 feet wide.

Acadiana, Louisiana, TV station KLYF shares this video report.

Forty-thousand barrels a day.

That’s the new official estimate of how much oil could be spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from the BP Deeepwater well, government officials said in a late afternoon press briefing today.

According to Dr. Marcia McNutt, director of the U.S. Geological Survey and chair of the Flow Rate Technical Group, the range of oil flowing from the runaway well is somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 barrels per day — double the official estimate announced by McNutt on May 27th.

The figures do not include the estimated 20 percent increase from cutting the riser to allow a containment cap to be placed on the well. Nor does it reflect the decrease in oil which is captured by the cap.

Documents from today’s briefing are combined in the file below.

Update, Flow Rate Technical Group -