After the Gulf oil well was capped on July 15, a federal scientific task force was at last allowed to study it and take readings to get a more definite look on how bad the flow has really been. They concluded that about 53,000 barrels of oil per day were spewing from the well and that the amount had been higher closer to the date of the accident.
The Coast Guard announced on Monday that the busted BP well has spewed forth over 170 gallons of oil — which makes that over 4 million barrels — since April 20. This now makes the Gulf disaster the worst oil spill accident in history, surpassing the 1979 Ixtoc spill in the Bay of Campeche of the Gulf of Mexico which went on for a year.
This article appears in Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2010.