BLACK WATER

FLASHBACK:
BP Finds 'Giant' Oil Source Deep Under Gulf of Mexico

September 3, 2009: BP said Wednesday that it made a "giant" oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, and analysts said that the find deep below the sea floor raised hopes that further exploration in the region could help sustain U.S. offshore oil production.
BP spokesman Daren Beaudo said the company would not make any estimates on the amount of oil its find could yield, however the Thunder Horse field is producing as much as 300,000 barrels a day.

BP said that the well struck oil in "multiple reservoirs" in the Lower Tertiary geologic zone, a layer of the earth's crust dating back 38 million to 68 million years.
More than 10 discoveries have been made at that level in the Gulf, including BP's Kaskida find, which has estimated reserves -- about a third or less recoverable -- of 4 billion to 6 billion barrels.

"We view the Lower Tertiary as one of the next big waves of development in the Gulf of Mexico," Beaudo said.

Black Water Rising

In May 2000 a draft of an environmental analysis by the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) stated that “the oil industry’s experience base in deep-water well control is limited” and that a massive spill “could easily turn out to be a potential show stopper for the [outer continental shelf] program if the industry and MMS do not come together as a whole to prevent such an incident.”

CALCULATION

Five billion barrels of oil at 0.15898729 cubic metres a barrel (42 US gallons a barrel).
equals 794,936,000 cubic metres of oil.
Each cubic metre, sliced into 1cm slabs of oil, would cover 100 sqm. The oil would therefore cover about 80,000,000,000 square metres.
There are a million square metres in a square kilometre so the oil slick, at 1cm depth could cover 80,000 square kilometres. Half the thickness of the slick means double the area.