Gulf Well Could Contain a Billion Barrels of Oil

(CBS)  The oil well spewing in the Gulf of Mexico could contain as much as 1 billion barrels of oil and could keep flowing for more than a decade, the Times of London reported.

The Macondo oil well could be one of the largest oil discoveries in the world.

Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf

Rick Mueller, an oil industry expert at Energy Security Analysis, in Massachusetts, said that the well's powerful flow rate, which has been estimated by the government at up to 60,000 barrels a day and shows no sign of slowing down, suggested that the well could be far bigger than previously thought, the Times reported.

BP previously estimated that the field contained 50 million to 100 million barrels of oil.

A company spokesman told the Times that BP engineers had been unable to determine the size of the field because they had not completed the relevant tests before the explosion on April 20.

The Times wrote that if the Macondo field is larger than BP initially claimed it could have a dual significance for the company. The well could keep flowing at a rapid rate for many months or years, but it could also be highly valuable in the long term. However, BP is unlikely to return to the well for a number of years. The company is set to begin selling assets to help fund the $20 billion escrow account it agreed to set up for compensating victims.

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[rdipaolo]

FLOWIN' IN THE GULF

How many roads must a man drive down, before you call him a man?
How many seas must a pelican sail, before she can sleep in clean sand?
Yes and how many times must oil be spilled, before it is forever banned?

Refrain:

The answer my friend, is flowin' in the gulf,
The answer is flowing in the gulf.

Yes and how many years can an oil rig exist, before it fails you and me?
Yes and how many years can some people exist, in a world of dying seas?
Yes and how many many times can you turn your head, and pretend that you just don't see?

(Refrain)

Yes and how many times must a man look up, before he can see a clear sky?
Yes and how many ears must one man have, before he can hear seabirds cry?
Yes and how many deaths will take till he knows, that too many creatures have died?

(Refrain)

[wyodutch]

So. The Gulf of Mexico is dieing.
.
The Empire has more important matters to be concerned with;
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1. The $3,000,000,000 a WEEK cost of the military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
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2. Insuring that the Pentagoon continues to receive the 120,000,000 (120 million) barrels of fuel it burns every year in the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
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3. How to side with 20 million illegals against 300 million American citizens and keep the southwest border open and unprotected.... Without suffering on election day.
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4. After allowing greedy, traitorous corporations to gut America's manufacturing infrastructure and ship the jobs to the Third World... How to print enough paper money to generate a jobless "recovery".
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It ain't easy being an Empire.
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Meanwhile, coastguardsmen Larry, Moe and Curly are insuring that every oil recovery barge has enough fire extinguishers aboard. Toot! Toot!

[Noval53]

Oil is not the limited resource we have been lead to believe. It's politically expedient for the lies to continue in order to limit our energy use, our freedom, and control our lives. The deeper the wells are drilled the larger quantities of oil are found at depth far to great to be created by ancient plants & animals. What's happening now in the Gulf of Mexico is helping to expose the truth. Look how quickly estimates went from millions of barrels to now a billion plus; and very likely many billions.

[sjc_1]

We use 1000 times what comes out of this one well every day. Easy oil has been pumped and burned, that is why they are 50 miles out drilling in 1 mile of water and 2 miles of earth.

[newsterI]

50 billion barrels the well might contain, well, according to this, we use over 20 million barrels a DAY in 2007 and increasing:

20,680,000 bbl/day 2007


Roughly a billion barrels every 50 days or less, the entire 50 billion barrels would last at best 6 years worth of use.
So ALL the oil in the entire gulf well there

[sjc_1]

I question the 20% more oil after the riser was cut, it looks to me more like 200% more. We may have MORE oil going into the Gulf than before, they are just collecting more now.

[gaetanomarano]

.
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one billion barrels are about $75 billion of revenue at current oil prices of over $200 billion if we consider the possible prices in the next 20 years
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that clearly show why, in two months, and still now, BP has adopted ONLY methods to stop the leak AND save the wellhead, instead of methods able to stop the leak in the early days and save the sea
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it's not important for BP to pay $20 billion for the damages in the Gulf, since, 1st, they are (probably) insured, and, 2nd, the money they can earn from the open wells in the Gulf will be 10+ times higher!!!
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Look at this AMAZING SCOOP about how NASA might help BP to quickly STOP the oil spill (in a few days) using an (giant and very strong) External Tank of the Space Shuttle!!!
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http://******/c8y9GX
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[vdp101]

Government Slow to Act on Oil Spill, Has More Important Agenda!

Please take the time to look at this article with a short video, might open some eyes!
http://votedemocraticparty.com/?p=542

[wyodutch]

Get the Coast Guard more involved! Coast Guard Admiral Popeye and his able assistant, coastguardsman Bluto can make sure there are enough fire extinguishers and life jackets to go around! Toot! Toot!

[Peoplewatcher]

BP don?t want to plug the hole. They can?t stop the flow of oil coming out of the BOV, because if they do it will stop the siphon process. Then that hole will be dead and they will have wasted time and money drilling the hole. This is such a big oil find and worth billions of dollars, It?s better to keep the oil flowing into the ocean at any cost to the environment, while their drilling the relief wells than to loose billions of dollars

Some people say they don?t know how to stop the leak. But, I?m sure they do.
The simplest and quickest way to temporarily seal the leak until the relief wells are drilled, is to attach four cables on either side of a rubber cone seal with the cables running to pulleys below the gushing oil pipe, mounted on the Blow Off Valve (this is done with underwater robots using latch hooks) Have the cables running to winched ships on the surface. Then pull the cone (pointed part of cone facing down) into the pipe with enough pressure to stop the leak.

[newsterI]

LOL, everyone and their brother is suddenlyan armchair oil rig engineer like "Peoplewatcher" here with their "solutions" on how to plug the well, geez, this is over a MILE deep under water for crying out loud! this is not a leak in your kid's swimming pool!

[RonenNewmark]

There IS a REAL solution to stop this leak once and for all! The design is on Youtube. Make a search on Youtube for "Operation Open Tower" this is serious. Watch for yourself. Send the video to every human you know. Let's tell BP to build this design and stop this once and for all.