The total surface area of all the worlds oceans is 3.61 x 10 >14 m>2

Assume a oil film thickness of 1 micron

Then we have a total volume of oil 3.61 x 10>8 m>3

The well is estimated to be spewing 50,000 barrels a day

and

1 barrel of oil = 0.159 m>3

So assuming the well continues to spew and the well don't dry up , then it would take approximately 124 years for a film of oil to cover all the worlds oceans .


A truly useless piece of information I know , but in the words of Michael Caine - I lot of people don't know that !

 

What a little ray of sunshine you are Rob.

Depressing though, innit. BP must be absolutely ****ting themselves about the money lost. Bet they were banking on that oil field to keep them in bonusses for the next few years. Instead, it is all in the water AND they have to spend billions on clearing it up. Double whammy.

 

may be a good time to buy bp shares though

 

BP are still making a profit even whilst this spill continues.

 

What I cant understand is the Anti UK rhetoric, ok it's a British Company but it was a subcontractor that made the mistake, drilling for oil under rights bought from the US government to produce oil, most of which I would imagine is going to keep their low fuel prices and sustain their massive demand for oil.

Ok, BP need to clean up their mess, it was under their control, the subcontractors got it wrong, BP make Billions every year so no sympathy there but the US government werent regulating things properly, whilst there is such a demand for Crude Oil to be taken from the ground and transported around the place there will always be the chance for these kind of incidents, no matter how much is learnt and how many proceudres are in place, its a risky business and the desire to get oil from more inhospitable, deeper areas now all the easily extracted stuff is gone makes it more likely, its unknown territory which increases the risk many fold.

The US are out there around the world, sticking their noses in, with us one step behind, neither exactly blameless on the world stage, plus you dont have to go far back in history to see some epic mistakes causing massive damage by US companies, remember Bhopal and the Amoco Cadiz, plus Mr Obama, though he has the moral high ground at the mometn should stop and think a while, what happens when an American company drops another bollock in the future, he may well have run out of goodwill.

 

I agree with you J4CKO. Despite BP's responsibility for the rig etc. the two US companies who owned the rig and installed the equipment should also be held to task when it comes to paying for the damage to the environment and all the compensation claims etc.

I think it is a very poor do that the President has avoided any reference to those US firms and concentrated on laying into BP and Britain as well of course seemingly demonstrating his innate dislike of all things British! He has lost a lot of home popularity of course so he must be trying to show what a star he really is before their coming elections!

Les

 

BP is the prime therefore they are responsible. Once the dust starts to settle BP will see if Transocean or Halliburton have any liability then they will take them to the cleaners. Quite normal in business.


PS Rob - 50,000 barrels seems like a lot - so it may be 250 years!

 

If the ocean has got all this oil I think we should invade!!!!!!

 

I don't think Obama has any moral high ground when you consider the US is the second biggest polluter in the world!

 

He seems to think he has, ok, a bit of a telling off is in order but he is milking it a bit now, it wont get it sorted any quicker and is loosing him friends.

 

The US government has a short sighted view to the safety of US industry :-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_Alpha

Lots of other poor US practices here as well:-

http://www.csb.gov/

Especially this one!

http://www.csb.gov/investigations/de...1&pg=1&F_All=y

UK industry is not whiter than white but I'd rather be on a UK installation than a US one.

Steve

 

If anything he's simply diverting attention away from his own incompetence. He's done nothing more than creating a mob looking for someone to lynch. What has he done exactly to reduce the impact of this environmental disaster? He hasn't exactly assisted BP in clearing up the mess. Instead of "kicking some ***", he has planted his foot in his mouth as his rhetoric is costing BP billions of pounds, which affects not only British shareholders and pensions, but also Americans who also have investments in BP.

Instead of trying to tell how BP should do its business and "rubber necking" by visiting affected beaches, he should pull his foot out of his mouth and help with the clear up.

 

It does not look good for BP...

...there is some damning evidence emerging already and Halliburton are looking to be on safer ground...

 

drill baby drill

you gotta hand to em, they know what they want


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o0iJ...eature=related

 

Remember how Dubya took an incident and used it as a rallying call to fulfill his ambitions?

Looks like Obama's attempting it

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...-oil-spill-911

 

If that refers to his stupid "enviromental September the eleventh" remark, then I agree. What a **** he has turned out to be.

 

As has been said above - nobody seems to be mentioning Bhopal and Union Carbide. Which in all honesty was a damn sight worse disaster than this is. The Union Carbide fallout is still killing people now!

 

http://environment.about.com/od/heal...stateofair.htm


.
What the **** they moaning about they've never been bothered by polution before

 

Obama seems to be coming across like a complete ******* over all this.

 

Even if BP is the "prime" as you say, they contracted to use the rig which belonged to TransOcean and was also worked on by Halliburton, so why are those firms not even being mentioned. BP did not own the rig etc. they just used it to get the oil which they were paying for.

Les

 

They delegated the task but not the responsibility.

Steve

 

Surely if the mechanical bits fail it must be down to the installer.

Les

 

.
.
Poor health & safety Les .

 

Just a bit!

Les