The Obama administration announced Thursday that it has ordered BP to release all data related to the massive spill, including environmental sampling analyses, internal investigation reports and details of the cleanup effort. The peer-reviewed team, which has already begun its work, is to determine the flow rate from the beginning of the incident to the present, LaBrec said. Geological Society and others from the science community and academia. Thad Allen would oversee the team, which will include members from the Coast Guard, the Minerals Management Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Energy, the U.S. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard announced the creation of a federal Flow Rate Technical Group to assess the actual flow rate from the well. Now the decisions will have to be made by others, because it is clear that they have been hiding the actual consequences of this spill.' 'People do not trust the experts any longer,' said Markey, D-Massachusetts. Ed Markey, who leads a House subcommittee investigating the disaster, told reporters, 'I think now we are beginning to understand that we cannot trust BP.' But figures by independent researchers have run up to many times higher: Steve Wereley, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, told CNN's 'American Morning' that the spill could be as big as 20,000 to 100,000 barrels a day.Īnd members of Congress released video from the company that showed much more oil pouring out of the damaged well than the siphon was capturing. Proegler declined to estimate how much more oil was escaping.īP America Chairman Lamar McKay said Wednesday that the figure used by the oil spill response team had a degree of 'uncertainty' built into it. 'We're hopeful that next week we'll be able to shut it off.'Įarlier in the day, BP acknowledged that the underwater gusher is bigger than estimated to date, as new video showed a cloud of crude billowing around its undersea siphon.Ĭompany spokesman Mark Proegler said Thursday that the siphon is now drawing about 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) per day up to a ship on the surface of the Gulf - as much as government and company officials had estimated the spill was pouring into the Gulf every day for a month. 'If that option doesn't work, we've got a second and a third option we'll do after that,' Dudley said on CNN's Larry King on Thursday. Washington (CNN) - A BP official says a gusher of oil pouring from its damaged Gulf of Mexico well could be shut off as early as next week.īP Managing Director Bo Dudley said Thursday night the company will pump fluids into the well this weekend in the beginning of a process that - if successful - could lead to the leak finally being closed off in a matter of days. EPA orders BP to find less toxic chemical to use to break up oil.NEW: Coast Guard announces flow rate assessment group.NEW: Well could be shut off next week, BP official says.

Bp client base lost due to oil spill