Government Scientists Estimate BP (NYSE:BP) Spill at 4.1 Million Barrels

If they were honest they would admit they really have no idea how much oil spewed into the ocean, but government scientist have guessed the amount to be at 4.1 million barrels that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico.

How did the "scientists" come to the amount? They used the pressure readings of the current containment cap on the oil well, and the other on the extremely unreliable modeling; in this case of the oil reservoir.

The immediate problem is the readings related to the pressure readings is the damage to the oil well had kept the oil from spilling into the Gulf unhindered, and once removed to prepare for the final cap, it was proven a lot more oil gushed into the ocean when that happened.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu's statement about the matter didn't make sense. He said, “The revised estimates are part of this administration’s ongoing commitment to ensuring that we have the most accurate information possible.”

The reason it makes no sense is the methodology is extremely flawed. But more importantly, the ability of the Gulf to repair itself, including the 40 percent of the oil gone through evaporation, and the microbes munching on the oil, make the amount of oil (other than loss for use by people), largely irrelevant.

What matters is how much oil is damaging the area, not how much oil left the well; even if the amount could really be accurately measured.

Some are already in hysterics about it being close to 16 times the oil leaked into the ocean by the Exxon Valdez, but that's like comparing apples to oranges.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill did about 100 times (literally) the damage to wildlife the Macondo oil spill has done, if that. And the amount of oil on the coasts and marshlands are far less than feared or guessed at.

This type of guesswork is used because the government would look bad if they couldn't come up with some type of number. After all, how can they administer fines if a number isn't grabbed out of thin air and applied to the situation?

All of this underscores the need to change this dubious law which has an energy company pay a fine based on the amount of barrels of oil released into the ocean, rather than the amount of damage.

After the incredible amount of coverage of the "environmental disaster," a growing number of scientists have concluded it's doubtful it can even be described in that manner, as the harm to the animals and environment are minimal.

Of course the loss of human life is the real tragedy, along with the inability of people in the Gulf region to work at the busiest time of the year for them.

Media outlets don't know how to cover this any longer, now that it has been discovered to be a non-event, and even the last-ditch effort of saying we can't be sure of how bad it is is unconvincing and dishonest, as it's very clear that it doesn't even come close to the made up and imagined disaster most of them wanted it to be.

Finally, BP did end up capturing an estimated 800,000 barrels of oil once they put things in place, allegedly making the amount of oil escaping the well about 4.9 million barrels.