Barrels

The number keeps changing, and the news keeps getting worse: Now the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico could be flowing at 60,000 barrels a day. Hours before President Obama took to the airwaves to speak to Americans about the gulf oil spill, the government group whose task it is to assess the flow rate from BP's undersea well came up with a revised estimate of 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day. A previous revision from the federal Flow...

One of the most confounding issues about the Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting oil leak is that after more than a month and a half, no one can say for certain just how much oil has gushed into the Gulf of Mexico. Teams of scientists have employed various methods to calculate the flow rate, and with each study, they have revised estimates upward. Meanwhile, others are working to pinpoint where the oil has gone and where it might head next. Based on the best available data, here's what we know: How much oil has the blown-out well leaked into the gulf?

Government scientists Thursday said as many as 40,000 barrels of oil have been flowing daily from the blown-out BP well in the Gulf of Mexico, doubling earlier estimates and greatly expanding the scope of what is already the largest spill in U.S. history. The new figures could mean 42 million to 84 million gallons of oil have leaked into the gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on the night of April 20. The flow estimates were released by Marcia McNutt, director of the U.S. Geological Survey and do not count any increases that may have occurred since the cutting of the well's riser pipe, a step that was expected to boost the flow.

The cap that was installed last week on the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is recovering 15,000 barrels of oil per day, with that rate expected to increase to 20,000 barrels in the near future, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen told reporters at a Monday-morning briefing. Meanwhile, officials are seeking additional skimmers — the equipment used to soak up oil floating on the surface of the water — to assist in the cleanup of what Allen said was "no longer a single spill, but a massive collection of smaller spills."

The commander of the federal government's response to the gulf oil spill said Sunday that the containment dome captured 10,000 barrels of oil gushing from the sea floor in its second day of operation, up from 6,000 barrels. U.S. Coast Guard Adm Thad Allen, in an interview on the ABC news show "This Week," said engineers are slowly raising production and agreed with an assessment from BP chief executive Tony Hayward that the containment effort could eventually collect a majority of the oil "if it's operating properly."

Efforts to contain the flood of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico showed signs of progress as a cap placed atop BP's blown-out well managed to capture 6,000 barrels of oil in its first 24 hours, officials announced Saturday. No one knows exactly how much is still spewing from the well, although estimates by a government task force before the well was capped ranged between 12,000 and 25,000 barrels of oil daily. The containment cap, the latest in a string of efforts to cope with the massive spill, is funneling oil and gas to a surface ship about a mile above the wellhead.

A video released by BP this week has underscored questions about the rate at which oil is spewing from a broken pipe on the Gulf of Mexico seabed. BP and government officials have pegged the leak resulting from the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster at 5,000 barrels a day, or about 200,000 gallons. But a scientist who analyzed the video of the gushing pipe said Thursday the oil flow appeared to be much greater. "I spent a couple of hours this afternoon analyzing the video, and the number I get is 70,000 barrels a day coming out of that pipe," said Steve Wereley, a Purdue University mechanical engineering professor.

Brazil and its huge offshore oil finds may be getting much of the oil world's attention these days, but Latin America's energy scene has another rising star: Colombia. In the latest upward revision of the nation's production targets, a top official of state-controlled oil company Ecopetrol said Monday that Colombia's crude oil output should reach at least 1.2 million barrels a day by the end of 2012, nearly double the average daily production reached last year. The ramping up of crude production would strengthen the country's status as the region's fourth-largest oil producer and probably lead to increased Colombian exports to the U.S., analysts said.

Gasoline prices are rising nationwide as the summer driving season nears, and oil futures appear poised for a breakout on encouraging economic news and fears about the seriousness of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Over the last week, pump prices saw their biggest jump in more than a month, according to the Energy Department's weekly survey of U.S. filling stations. Nationwide, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline rose 4.9 cents to $2.898. In California it rose 3 cents to $3.118.

A tiny nonprofit group with one paid staffer in a one-room office in a small West Virginia town has been causing U.S. officials and oil company executives to backtrack and revise their estimates of the size and flow of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. SkyTruth first analyzed satellite and radar data on the spill shortly after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sank after a fire April 22. It challenged initial estimates that 1,000 barrels of oil were gushing daily from the wellhead nearly a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, about 130 miles southeast of New Orleans.