Drilling near Shetland Islands in British waters could result in a bigger catastrophe than the BP (NYSE:BP) oil spill if an accident were to happen, according to Chevron (NYSE:CVX), who has a license to drill in the region.
According to a worst-case scenario, about 77,000 barrels a day could be released from the well if it ruptured. That's close to 25 percent more than that which escaped from the Macondo Well in the Gulf of Mexico.
Originally Chevron stated the worst that would happen would 35,000 barrels a day escaping into the North Sea.
Managing director of Chevron UK, Richard Cohagan, said the reason for the increased estimate is the high-pressure connected with the area.
"Deepwater Horizon has given us a new perspective on how bad things could be. When we looked at the core pressures and what seismic has shown us might be the producing interval, we calculated what the largest spill rate could be, said Cohagan.
"We actually came up with a very large spill rate in that condition of 77,000 barrels - actually more than BP's Macondo."
Oil companies have all been going over their operations after the Gulf oil spill.
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