BP (NYSE:BP) Playing Dumb on Oil Spill Estimate and Spill Containment

BP (NYSE:BP) is playing dumb when it comes to the new oil spill estimate. Just a day ago the government increased their estimate of spilled oil to over 4 million barrels.

BP spokesman John Barnes said, "We don't have our own estimate of the flow rate or an assessment of this report." He stated that BP was not part of the federal scientific task force which came up with the estimate. He did say that the company had provided data to the task force. "It's important to know the amount of oil released, but we're not actual participants in that," continued Barnes.

Something is not adding up here, from the beginning of the oil spill BP has been low balling their estimates. Despite what scientists and the federal government have been insisting was the actual, much higher amount. Now BP's lawyers are being hush, hush and not giving any comment one way or the other. The amount of spilled oil is what will determine the amount the company's liability.

The federal clean water act will allow the government to impose the fine. The minimum of which, would be $1,100 per barrel of the toxic crude deposited into the Gulf of Mexico. The fine could go all the way up to $4,300 per barrel if the company is found to be negligent.

MMS Steps Down, BP (NYSE:BP) Oil Spill Worst In History

It is official, BP (NYSE:BP) is the worst oil spill in U.S. History, this is by the governments task force findings of new estimates of the oil flow. The estimation by the task force is three times more than what was being estimated.

This estimation was given by the scientific team of President Obama who were given the job to determine the accurate amount of oil flowing from the Gulf oil spill. Their original estimate was between 12,000 and 19,000 barrels being lost of oil daily. This is much higher than what the U.S. Coast Guard and BP kept insisting on, 5,000 gallons a day being lost.

The new estimate is no comparison to what was originally estimated. The new oil spill estimate is up to 798,000 gallons daily.

The most conservative estimate, since the April 20th fuel oil spill disaster would be a total of close to 17 million gallons deposited into the ocean. The high end of the estimate, would equal to a total of 29.5 million gallons.

This surpasses the Exxon Valdez Disaster which spilled a total of 11 million gallons of oil.