June 10, 2010 – The amount of oil flowing from the ruptured BP Deepwater Horizon oil well into the Gulf of Mexico for more than seven weeks is much greater than previous estimates. Marsha McNutt, Director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced today that 20,000 – 40,000 barrels were gushing out of the well before the riser pipe was cut. This is the conclusion reached by the researchers tasked with analyzing the oil flow.

This report is based on analysis of the video which was originally available to the group, not the recent release of the high resolution images. No numbers given on estimates of flow rate after the riser pipe was cut so that the containment system could be installed. The government had estimated a 20 per cent increase in the oil spill after the cut was made.

Earlier today, the Associated Press reported, "At the bottom of the sea, the containment cap on the leaking well is capturing 630,000 gallons a day and pumping it to a ship at the surface, and the amount could nearly double by next week to roughly 1.17 million gallons, the Coast Guard has said."

Source: Deepwater Horizon Incident JIC

"Based on additional video that BP was directed to provide, members of the Plume Modeling Team have now calculated updated lower and upper bound range estimates for a period of time before the Riser Insertion Tube Tool was inserted and before the riser was cut. Most of the experts have concluded that, given the limited data available and the small amount of time to process that data, the best estimate for the average flow rate for the leakage prior to the insertion of the RITT is between 25,000 to 30,000 barrels per day, but could be as low as 20,000 barrels per day or as high as 40,000 barrels per day."