More than 100 million gallons of crude oil from British Petroleum's unplugged drill hole might already have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. On June 11, 2010, scientists estimated the BP blown-out well a half mile down in the Gulf could have been spewing as much as 2 million gallons of crude a day until the BP cut-and-cap that is now siphoning off some of the gushing oil. [ 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day = 1.5 to 2.5 million gallons a day.]
“The BP oil spill threatens a number of power plants.
If the water supply for these facilities becomes contaminated
with oil, cooling water systems could be damaged.”
- U. S. Dept. of Energy May 12, 2010 Situation Report
Sea bird covered with British Petroleum oil in June 2010 on Louisiana shore after BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling unit blew up on April 20, 2010, releasing as much as 2 million gallons of crude oil every day up to BP's recent cut-and-cap maneuver that began capturing some of the oil flow. [ 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day = 1.5 to 2.5 million gallons a day.] Image by Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries.June 12, 2010 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania - At approximately 11:00 PM EDT on April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred aboard British Petroleum's (BP) Deepwater Horizon mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) located 52 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, and 130 miles southeast of New Orleans. Eleven men working the oil rig died. BP was drilling an exploratory well at the time of the incident. By June 11, 2010, scientists trying to give a reality check on how much oil has erupted from the disastrous mile-deep drill hole stunned the U. S. and the world with an estimate as high as 2 million gallons of crude oil a day, turning the Gulf of Mexico into a toxic marineland and destroying the birds, animals and plant life that live in the delicate wetlands bordering the Gulf shores in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, western Florida and potentially even the east coast of Florida if enough oil gets into the loop current that goes around the southern tip of Florida and back up the East Coast.
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![Sea bird covered with British Petroleum oil in June 2010 on Louisiana shore after BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling unit blew up on April 20, 2010, releasing as much as 2 million gallons of crude oil every day up to BP's recent cut-and-cap maneuver that began capturing some of the oil flow. [ 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day = 1.5 to 2.5 million gallons a day.] Image by Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries.](https://www.earthfiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/OilSpillBirdOnBackLaJune2010.jpg)