Matt Simmons Revises Leak Estimate To 120,000 BPD, Oil Covers 40% Of Gulf Beneath Surface

[tekisui]

Source: Before It's News

Matt Simmons was on Bloomberg earlier, adding some additional perspective to his original appearance on the station, in which he initially endorsed the nuclear option as the only viable way to resolve the oil spill.

Simmons refutes even the latest oil spill estimate of 45,000-60,000 barrels per day, and in quoting research by the Thomas Jefferson research vessel which was compiled late on Sunday, quantifies the leak at 120,000 bpd. What is scarier is that according to the Jefferson the oil lake underneath the surface of the water could be covering up to 40% of the entire Gulf of Mexico.

video at link: http://beforeitsnews.com/news/79/389/Matt_Simmons_Revises_Leak_Estimate_To_120,000_Barrels_Per_Day,_Believes_Oil_Covers_40_Of_Gulf_Beneath_The_Surfac.html

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Simmons has been criticized for his estimates and theories, but often gives the worst-case scenarios that aren't even considered openly by most. Take it for what it's worth.

[Odin2005]

1. Simmons is usually right. Shit.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Then exactly the same must have occured

with the Ixtoc leak which was even bigger.

[lunatica]

3. So now the jargon is bpd?

I'm guessing that means barrels per day? For some reason that little injection into the daily jargon really irritates the fucking hell out of me. Are we now so savvy of the lexicon that we can speak in initials like the professionals?

I guess my helplessness and rapidly growing hopelessness is making me irritable.

[tekisui]

4. Sorry! I abbreviated to fit it in the headline. Yes, it is barrels per day.

[lunatica]

9. I've seen the initials used in more places than here

I'm sorry if it looked like I was attacking you. I wasn't.

[JCMach1]

5. I am hearing 2.5M plus per day now...

[Statistical]

6. Gallons vs barrels (42 gallons per barrel). n/t

[SidDithers]

7. The GOM covers approx 600,000 square miles...

40% of that is 240,000 square miles

Even if the "oil lake underneath the surface of the water" was 1" deep (1" is 1/63360 of a mile), he'd be talking about a volume of 3.78 cubic miles of oil.

3.78 cubic miles of oil is 4 162 222 817 280 gallons of oil.

Yes, that's more than 4 trillion gallons of oil, or roughly 100 billion barrels of oil.


The numbers just don't jibe.

Edit:

Even if Deepwater was spilling 120,000 bpd, and has been for 56 days.

56 x 120,000 = 6.72 million barrels
= 282,240,000 gallons, which is about 15,000 times less oil than would be contained in the undersea oil lake.

Sid

[tekisui]

8. I am with you.

But, NO one else will give an upper-bound estimate. I doubt that 40% of the Gulf is oil, but I also don't buy BP or the US numbers. They have been wrong every step along the way.