BP Accused of Lowballing Oil Leak Estimates

BP Accused of Lowballing Oil Leak Estimates

by Stephen Messenger, Porto Alegre, Brazil

Well, it just keeps getting worse. Around two months ago, after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank, BP estimated that some 1,000 barrels of oil were leaking into the Gulf each day.

That number was soon revised to 5,000 barrels and later to around 12,000. Then, just last week, those grim figures were raised again, putting the estimates at between 30,000 and 65,000 barrels of oil leaking each day.

Now, according to a recently disclosed internal document from BP, that number could have been as high as 100,000 barrels of oil, daily--a fact BP decided to keep secret.

According to the a report from the AFP, as BP estimated the leak to be around 5,000 barrels of oil each day publicly, lawmakers were told that the worst-case scenario could be much higher--around 55,000 barrels.

Now, in an internal BP document disclosed by US Representative Ed Markey, the company's earliest estimates were made without referencing what was it's actual worst-case scenario--that the leaking oil could total 100,000 barrels daily.

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