Oil estimate raised to 35,000-60,000 barrels a day

[BelgianMadCow]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Government officials Tuesday increased the estimate of oil flowing into the Gulf to between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels (1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons) per day, up to 50 percent more than previously estimated.

The government's previous estimate, issued last week, was 20,000 to 40,000 barrels per day. The change was "based on updated information and scientific assessments," and was reached by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and Chair of the National Incident Command's Flow Rate Technical Group Marcia McNutt, the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center said.

"The improved estimate is based on more and better data that is now available and that helps increase the scientific confidence in the accuracy of the estimate," it said.

Alberto Alisedo, a member of the flow rate technical group, said scientists reached the consensus after a three-hour conference call on Monday and a 10-hour meeting on Sunday of the group in Seattle, Washington.

Read more: http://us.cnn.com/2010/US/06/15/oil.spill.disaster/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

---

further in the article "the upper limit is less certain"...

[rotund1]

1. More WAGs. There is no way to know the flow rate.

crap.

[PSPS]

2. We know for sure that we're being lied to.

This incrementalism is a hallmark of conditioning the population to something horrific. Another thing is the lack of updates regarding the relief wells. Maybe they've stopped because they know it's of no use. Everything surrounding this seems to have turned into pure theater, and that has me concerned.

Both BP and the US government know what's happening here, but they're not telling us. This makes me fear the worst: casing failure, bedrock shattered, maybe even the floor of the gulf collapsing. This would mean the entire field would be spewed into the gulf because no relief well can affect that.

Over time, this 3 billion barrels of oil (USGS estimate of the size of this field) would make its way around the world, killing all marine life including the plankton that are responsible for most of the oxygen in our atmosphere.

Not a pretty scenario, is it? But think of this: If this "nightmare scenario" were, in fact, what we were facing, how would the behavior of the media and government officials differ from what it is now?

[Vilis Veritas]

4. Yes we are, but math gives me some hope...

Doing the math:

3 billion barrels of oil is 126 billion gallons of oil or

126,000,000,000 <- oil deposit
650,000,000,000,000,000 <- Gulf
3,551,580,000,000,000,000,000,000 <- all oceans

I really want to remain an optimist...hope is all we have left.

[rotund1]

5. I too am concerned, and very much pissed off but I can't abandon facts

in the service of an agenda however much it's tempting. I posted the other day that I find our Administration's approach to this horror to be very lacking...it should be treated as seriously as an armed invasion of our southern shores by an implacable enemy and it has not been. Several people chastised me for being unreasonably critical of the President. I reject that criticism and I repeat that our (our government's) response has been WAY too tepid.

But let's not get totally crazy here...the "floor of the gulf" cannot collapse, it isn't a geologic possibility...not that the ongoing situation is anything less than catastrophic for the ecosystem (and I wish the talking heads would stop referring to the ecosystem as the 'ecology'...which is not the right word.)

[CoffeeCat]

7. I would think that it would be easy to determine...

...the flow rate.

It doesn't look that difficult. I bet some college engineering
class could figure it out in less than a week.

Look at the HD images...you could estimate very well how much is flowing out
and do some math. I'm sure there are particle experts, engineers and people
who specialize in flow mechanics and other related fields--who could give us
a pretty accurate reading of the flow.

So tired of being told how "hard" this is.

Whenever our government wants to drag its feet and NOT do something--because
the big, bad corporations are barking orders at them--we hear how "hard" and
"difficult" and "complicated" these things are.

Remember, we were told how hard it was to pass healthcare reform--with a
Democrat President and majorities in the House and Senate? Damn, it was
just so HARD!!

Now, it's hard to tell us what the flow rate is. Lying bastards.

[psychopomp]

24. The well is drilled deep into the bedrock of the Gulf

I don't see the Gulf bedrock shattering because of this leak. This graphic should be helpful in visualizing the depths at which the well was being drilled:

http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/infographic-tallest-mountain-to-deepest-ocean-trench-0249/

[ShamelessHussy]

3. not with BP in-charge of the site

thats fer sure

[rotund1]

6. No, it doesn't matter who is 'in charge'...it just isn't possible to measure

the effluent. That's my opinion based on 40 years of experience as a mechanical/aeronautical engineer. But I'm willing to keep learning...even from BP or an internet poster so feel free to grant me some continuing education.
:D

[JCMach1]

8. Scientists: Oil leaking up to 2.52M gallons daily

Source: AP

Scientists provided a new estimate for the amount of oil gushing from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday that indicates it could be leaking up to 2.52 million gallons of crude a day.

A government panel of scientists said that the ruptured well is leaking between 1.47 million and 2.52 million gallons of oil daily. The figures move the government's worst-case estimates more in line with what an independent team had previously thought was the maximum size of the spill...

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_oil_spill_flow

---

:(

[FrenchieCat]

9. So what are we gonna do about it? Sit on our ass and criticize the President,

or are we gonna get serious about playing a positive part in this mess?
That is the real question.

[Oregone]

10. Knee-jerk defense, eh?

A lil testy, aint we. I didn't think this topic was about the president

[tomm2thumbs]

12. good catch

I just started reading the posts here and everyone is digging in their heels... on anything & everything. I'm going to dig my heels in that thank God Sarah Palin isn't our VP and John McCain isn't our P

I'll start with that and move inwards

[FrenchieCat]

13. Defense of What?

You can always join us.....

[Oregone]

16. Join ya? I don't know wtf anyone is talking about

Ive been smokin up and fishing all day. Sorry. Can't help you. Your little problems have no bearing on me at the moment.

But...seems like you sniping about people criticizing the president is a tad defensive.

[Newest Reality]

17. It is not so knee-jerk

to consider that we and our President are currently beholden to big oil.

If they were to cut-off our supply, our entire way of life would suffer and then die. That's pretty powerful stuff and our President, titular head that he is, is more aware of that fact than most of our population.

This crises has put a very important factor into the limelight and it certainly involves us, the government and our understanding and views of these things in ways that most of us would rather not consider at all. It is trusting a very inconvenient truth into our faces in ways that pop the top off of the more conventional platitudes we are used to.

Sorry, but the Pres does not get any special treatment with a catastrophe in progress like this one. What are we supposed to do when, no matter how they try to buffer the reality and spin the facts, we are at an crucial, energy juncture that is pulling the mask off for those who want to see the face underneath it now? Warning: it is ugly and totally repulsive to the inculcated and mostly artificial mindset that has been conditioned to support it fully in heart and mind.

The day of reckoning is at hand, America. You can either ignore it, argue and moan against it, or face it head on as it bares its horrid fangs and stares into your consumer soul with viscious, reptillian eyes.

This ain't going away for a very long time and your future is in the offing, like it or not. Does the current titular head of America have anything to do with such a serious, long-term impact?

[Oregone]

19. If we don't cut off our supply to oil

Or energy for that matter, we are all going to fuckin die anyway.

Mass growth, mass industrialization, mass agricultural, mass scouring of the earth, mass pollution...all propelled by cheap energy.

We need to hit the brakes, real damn quick, or its game over.

[Newest Reality]

21. Truth!

Who is gonna' take off the costume and mask and yield to the Amish-or-less way of life that implies, first?

That's the lining on the wall of denial here, for sure. Nobody wants to consider that all their green living bullshit has very little meaning or impact other than providing a balm for their beleaguered consciences on this gradually roughening road to truth. You can feel great about helping to destroy the planet and supporting an unsustainable lifestyle just by choosing the right vehicle and buying cloth shopping bags these days.

That stuff has to stop, and I assure everyone, it eventually will. We have lived simply in the past and can do it again. We have bought into this game, be it willingly or unwillingly, and not only are the board and game pieces be pulled out from under us, we will find out that it was not really worth the playing.

The only comforting thought is that we will find, like indigenous cultures have, that there is some great joy and happiness to be found in a simple and and natural life when it is ALLOWED to be. What matters most becomes self-evident. The problem lies in the transition from false and totally exploitative to basic and with nature. That's going to be painful and shattering to many minds after such a deep, long, invasive mind fucking.

[JCMach1]

11. I hope this is a start with proper transparency

They have been hiding this amount for weeks it seems.

[Gregin Orlando]

14. I am getting tired of being lied to

That pathetic speech by our so-called leader was a bunch of hog snot. BP and the federal government knew this was WAY worse from day one. Now we are being told to pray for shrimpers and that the beaches will be restored to their original condition. Pluheeze!! That won't happen in our lifetimes. As for the the "new" estimate of oil flow, that is nothing new. Scientists have been saying that for months. Even a writer for, OMG! The Examiner!!! wrote about that a month ago. You can read it here: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Exa... . If someone can sit on a PC and give the facts a month before the government, BP and the corporate media does, you have to know we are being lied to and conditioned to slowly accept the true magnitude of this disaster. Furthermore, there are enough toxins in the air from evaporating oil without burning more. Here's another: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m6d15-Toxins-in-air-from-evaporating-oil-may-pose-greater-threat-to-Gulf-residents-than-oily-water This disaster is already out of hand!

[Oregone]

18. I don't mind honestly

The truth of this all blows. Give me rainbows and fairy tales for a bit

[JCMach1]

20. +1

[liberation]

23. Apparently some people sit on their asses better than others...

LOL

[avaistheone1]

15. Given the damage we have been "allowed" to observe so far the 2.52M gallons sounds more realistic.

jmo

[IcyPeas]

22. barrels? gallons? I'm confused....

they were talking 35-60 barrels today. I wish they would use the same measurement.

[Javaman]

26. 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day...

Each barrel of oil equals 42 gallons.

35,000 barrels equals 1,460,000 gallons

60,000 barrels equals 2,520,000 gallons

[JCMach1]

25. Mods: Article should not have been combined... this is a VERY different story and projection...