Ask CBS News: What's the Value of Oil Lost?

In our ongoing "Ask CBS News" segment, we've answered your questions about the Gulf oil spill. Viewers can leave questions on "CBS Evening News" Anchor Katie Couric's Twitter page or the CBS News Facebook page.

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Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf

Tonight we answered another one of your questions.

A viewer asked: "How much do we know about the value of the oil lost in the spill?"

CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella answered that there's debate about how much oil has actually spilled, but based on 19,000 barrels of oil a day, that oil would power about 43,000 cars, trucks and ships for a year. That's worth about $90 million so far.

More Oil Spill Questions and Answers

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Ask CBS News: How Many Offshore Rigs are There?
Ask CBS News: Is Burning Oil on Water Effective?
Ask CBS News: Can I Volunteer to Clean Up Oil?
CBS News Answers Your Oil Spill Questions
CBS News Answers More Oil Spill Questions

More Oil Spill Coverage

BP Exec Gives Pep Talk to Employees
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BP Rig Piece Washes Up on Fla. Beach?
Coast Guard to BP: Speed Up Containment Pace
The Politics of the Spill
BP's "Burn Box" Ignites Oil Collecting on Gulf

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[flywh33l]

Here is my question...
I am a 25 year master plumberI created a device to plug the oil leak. I called BP on the 25th of May and was told by (Annie) at the Houston office " We are not interested in plugging the oil well only harvesting as much oil as possible" I asked if I could send my plan anyway so she emailed me the horizon form. After filling it out i called a few days later and asked the status of my plan, the lady on the phone said to someone in the background "a gentleman from kansas wants to know the status of his plan what should I tell him?" the voice in the background replied, " yeah him and every other small town idiot, tell him we're still reviewing them" I have submitted two detailed solutions to the oil leak and just today i finally got a response back from horizon saying my plan is under technical review. Is there any way you could help get my plan some exposure, i am confident it will work. and i think the way BP is treating people needs to be exposed as well. thank you for your time.
Joe Caldart [e-mail]

[case10000]

We all know there is an oil leak in the gulf and it is BP's dime but when will we start going after the commissions, departments and such that have help add to the disaster? If I flunk a health inspection I am shut down. If the government claims to have 4 different sets of scientest looking at the spill why haven't they come up with any answers? If so called government point man is Thad Allen if people say they need booms and boats why aren't they there? I'll quit at day 56 because I am sure Obama and the rest of the government don't want to give these answers anyway.

[maribee1]

What have been the lasting effects of PemEx's Ixtoc 1 oil platform blowout (1979)? Ixtoc 1's blowout put 3,500,000 barrels in Mexico?s Campeche Bay

[DouglasNeilSimonArch]

A QUESTION REGARDING THE OIL SPILL

Why isn't the oil being guided directly from the source of the spill up to the surface for containment and distribution to storage facilities? Since the oil rises naturally, it seems that it need only be guided as it travels up to the surface. This could be done in a myriad of ways: flexible/membrane tubing, rigid or flexible pipe, anchored membrane sheeting. Why allow the toxic soup to disperse, and then set out to collect it? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Any clarification on this would be greatly appreciated.

Doug Simon, Architect
San Diego, CA

[RoboBlogger]

I'm not sure it's the right time to consider how much the "Value" of oil lost in this disastrous situation is. Who do you think has to clean up the mess? ... The community or the volunteers that's who. You will not see one office personnel from BP out there helping clean up.

[gerdemento]

Good point. The BP big wigs should all be forced to help clean up the oil mess, with no pay, and as for the $90 million (or however much) worth of oil lost, that should be BP's problem. I'm sorry if this offends you rich Democrats and Republicans, but I don't like seeing the wealthy and privileged getting away with what they get away with! BP shouold be made an example of and hit hard for this!

[thesevenveils]

There is gold in them there waters

[newsterI]

ased on 19,000 barrels of oil a day, that oil would power about 43,000 cars, trucks and ships for a year."

Which is a miniscule drop in the bucket compared to what we use in one year.

100,000 vehicles cross just the Golden Gate bridge every day, there are approx 125 million vehicles registered classified as "cars" in the USA.

[RoboBlogger]

Making a guesstimate based on false or misleading numbers only gives you a foolish answer.

[NoWayJose9999]

One gallon of oil pollutes a million gallons of water.
I think that it is much more important to consider that equasion......