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BloombergBP Document Shows Leak May Be 14,000 Barrels Daily (Update1)
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By Kim Chipman and Jim Efstathiou Jr.
May 26 (Bloomberg) -- A BP Plc document shows the company’s well in the Gulf of Mexico may be leaking about 14,000 barrels of oil a day, more than publicly estimated, U.S. Representative Edward Markey said today.
The internal BP document from April 27 put a high estimate for the leak at 14,266 barrels a day, Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said today at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing. At the time, BP was saying publicly that its well was leaking 1,000 barrels a day, Markey said.
The amount of oil being spilled will help determine BP’s liability for the leak, which was triggered by an April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig leased by BP from Transocean Ltd. BP began its most ambitious attempt to plug the well today by pumping mud-like drilling fluid into it. Markey said he received the BP document yesterday.
“According to this BP document, the company’s low estimate of the leak on April 27 was 1,063 barrels a day,” Markey said. “It’s best guess was 5,758 barrels a day. Its high estimate was 14,266 barrels a day. So when BP was citing the 1,000 barrels a day figure to the America people on April 28, their own internal document from the day before showed that their best guess was a leak of 5,758 barrels a day and their high estimate was over 14,000 barrels a day.”
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