Oil spill may be 100,000 barrels/day
Source: Agencies |
June 22, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AN internal BP document released by a US lawmaker estimated that a worst-case scenario rate for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill could be about 100,000 barrels per day, far higher than the current US figure.
Shares in the oil giant, which have nearly halved in value since an explosion at an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, slid 4.3 percent in early trade.
The group said the cost of its response to the spill had hit US$2 billion and it had paid out US$105 million in damages to those affected by the disaster.
It rejected claims by its partner in the oil well, Anadarko Petroleum, that it had been negligent in the way it operated the installation.
"It's a combination of things (affecting the share price)," said Barclays Capital analyst Lucy Haskins.
"Over the weekend we were getting the news flow about Anadarko refusing to pay and then there's these stories about higher flow rates in an internal memo.
"The shares are very vulnerable to any movement in terms of news flow," she added.
The estimate in the undated BP document released by US Representative Ed Markey, chairman of the energy and environment subcommittee of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, compares with the current US government estimate of up to 60,000 barrels (9.5 million liters) gushing daily from the ruptured well.
BP spokesman Toby Odone said the document appeared to be genuine but the estimate applied only to a situation in which a key piece of equipment called a blowout preventer is removed.
"Since there are no plans to remove the blowout preventer, the number is irrelevant," Odone said.
The British energy giant is still struggling to stop a leak that began on April 20 that is causing an economic and environmental disaster along the US Gulf Coast. BP is planning to raise US$50 billion to cover the cost of the largest oil spill in US history, London's Sunday Times reported.
The newspaper, without citing sources, said BP planned to raise US$10 billion from a bond sale, US$20 billion from banks and US$20 billion from asset sales over the next two years to cover the cost of the spill.
BP said last week it would suspend dividend payments to its shareholders and increase the pace of asset sales to US$10 billion this year to offset liabilities from the spill, which began after an explosion on an offshore rig that killed 11 workers.
The amount of oil spewing from the well has been a matter of considerable controversy in the two months since the spill erupted, with critics saying BP has understated the flow rate.
"Right from the beginning, BP was either lying or grossly incompetent," Markey told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, the 62nd day of the spill.
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