Yes. Although they refer to this as a lower marine riser and cap system, they are not capping the well. They are reducing the amount of oil that is spilling into the gulf.

The final solution will be the completion of relief well drilling, planned in early August.

See related link.

There are so many numbers out there it can drive you crazy! Tanker accidents are easier to assess, as there is only so much in a tanker compartment.

First, there will never be 100% agreement. Second, there's no official estimate of how much might leak out. Third, the worse case number is huge, but down from initial estimates. Finally, there isn't even a consensus from experts on how the final number, let us call it X, should be calculated.

The latest from the Task Force on the oil spill rate, (plume group) has estimated the oil rate prior to the insertion tube. Their outer range estimate is 20 to 40 thousand barrels per day (MB/D) without the insertion tube. But the insertion tube and now the LMRP are capturing substantial quantities of oil.

There is no reliable estimate of the oil that the LMRP is not capturing. BP has stated the LMRP is capturing roughly 15 MB/D. So, leakage now is 5 to 25 MB/D after deducting for LMRP capture. This can be converted into millions of gallons per day by multiplying by 0.042, or 0.210 to 1.05 million gallons per day. So, perhaps we have another 50 days of spilling, which will add 10.5 to 52.5 million gallons. In nice even numbers, we have anywhere from 10 to 50 million gallons to come.

There are a number of other methods used to calculate the spill. Previously, it was thought that the oil spill rate was 12 to 19 MB/D by examining the size of the spill and estimating the thickness. If we take the upper estimate in this case of 19 MB/D, then only 4 MB/D is coming out now with LMRP, which would mean in the next 50 days, 200 MB (8.4 million gallons) will be produced.

So, a plausible range of 8 to 50 million gallons more to come.

But, a number of factors are missing. First BP cut the marine riser which increased flow. Second, the numbers exclude evaporation, controlled burns, and skimming. Third, going forward, BP has stated that they will improve the collection with a better fitting cap.

Given the above, I would expect future oil to be on the low side of this range.

Finally, there are now three study groups, and subgroups, so more is to come.

See related link.

It is hard to "fix" an oil spill. Probably, the most important is to stop the well by flowing, by drilling relief wells. In addition, containment booms try to keep the oil from spreading and they are only partially successful in this effort. The oil spill keeps getting larger, and they can't deploy the booms rapidly to hold back the spill. Controlled burns of the oil also reduces the volume of oil. The recent installment of the LMRP (lower marine riser package) which captures the oil as it is escaping the well, and flows it up a marine riser, is working very well at present. They are using dispersants, injected subsea and also sprayed from planes on the surface of the oil spill to break up the oil. That's five right there- 1) relief wells, 2) booms 3) burns 4) LMRP and 5) dispersants.

A task force of scientists stated the flow rate was between 35 to 60 thousand barrels per day (MB/D). This is 1.5 to 2.5 million gallons per day.

The actual oil entering the gulf is less than this, as BP is able to capture approximately 20 MB/D using the LMRP. Also, oil is being burned at surfaces and skimmed.

See link.

You are correct- they can and they are doing it!

The choke and kill lines running off the side of the BOP can be used to produce the oil. BP is actively implementing the "Q4000 Direct Connect" option. Haven't a clue as to how much would flow from these lines.

The oil will go into the Helix Q4000 vessel, and will have to be offloaded. See details from BP in their video presentation. They said on May 31 that it will take about 2 weeks to implement.

I am hoping for a technical briefing from BP on this option and the LMRP soon. Keep checking the BP website.

See related link.

There is a lot of information being gathered by the LMRP and not being disclosed by BP. The pressure, temperature and fluid properties of the hydrocarbons coming out of the well and the general temperature/ pressure profile in the vicinity of the well would be very interesting data.

I added the official website for the spill. Samples have been collected of oil and gas, and no compositional analysis has been released, bottom hole static pressure at approx 18,000 ft was estimated to be 12,000 psi, but no supporting information was given.

I will watch this question, and add any information BP provides. I fear that the legal investigation by the Justice Department may have encouraged BP to hold back providing data.

All oil spills are bad. I think the real question is how bad is this spill for the environment.

The Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) was installed June 3rd as has begun collecting some of the spilling oil. The cap has not been fully tested underwater, so it is thought that some oil is still leaking from the spill.

Early reports of the spill going into the loop current and causing environmental damage in South Florida's coral reefs, has not occurred as of May 26th. The latest reports is the environmental damage is primarily in marshes of Louisiana.

A full evaluation of the damage is only possible months after a spill has been cleaned up as well as possible.

See related link.

Yes it is. There is a live feed up if you care to look. (See the Related Link below.)

As of May 29th, BP announced that 3 consecutive attempts at a 'top kill' had failed. The 'top kill' process involves pumping heavy fluids into the blowout preventer to restrict oil flow, and then permanently sealing it with cement.

On June 3, BP implemented its next contingency plan, which was the Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) Cap containment system. This plan involved cutting a part off the blow out preventer to leave a cleanly cut pipe which can then be capped. This effort did cap the oil well, however it only managed to contain 472,000 gallons of oil, which still leaves hundreds of thousands of gallons still spewing into the ocean.

Sometimes simple questions do not have simple answers. It is sufficient to say that the estimates have a large range, and are subject to change. My comments are valid for June 11, 2010 only.

Right now, BP is capturing oil coming out of the well using the LMRP. They indicated that it is capturing about 15,000 thousand barrels of oil per day (15 MB/D).

The US Geological Survey (Marcia McNutt, task force leader) was initially assigned responsibility to identify rates. The rate question is now being addressed by three teams- See related link.

The Plume Modeling Group estimates as of June 10, 2010, the oil coming out of the riser prior to the use of the insertion tube is 25 to 30 MB/D, but then give an outside range of 20 to 40 MB/D. This is not the current rate, but what might have been flowing nearly a month ago.

Unfortunately, this isn't the rate coming out now, because they cut the marine riser in preparation for the LMRP. Everyone agrees that this should increase the rate, the the experts have given an opinion on how much this should increase the estimates.

Some of the oil coming to the surface is also being loss by evaporation, skimming and controlled burns. The experts have not yet given an opinion on how much this should decrease the estimates.

However, if we ignore the increase and all the decreases except for BP's estimate of what is captured by the LMRP, an estimate of the current spill rate using the outer range numbers is 5 to 25 MB/D. This can be converted to millions of gallons by multiplying the numbers by 0.042, yielding 0.21 to 1.05 million gpd.

Remember this does not include (1) increase due to cutting of riser and (2) evaporation, burning and skimming decreases. Using the lower range of estimates, the claim that this is the largest accidental oil spill in the US is correct, and has far surpassed the volumes spilled by the Exxon-Valdez. Also, I note that in many of the largest spills, recovered oil was nominal, so just the total spilled (from the well or tanker) was reported. In this case, the reductions as mentioned above are significant.

See link.

I did not find an authorative estimate on World War 2 sinkings. There were Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico sinkings by U-boats. Working with the 590,000 tonnes, and using the approximate conversion factor of 7.33 barrel/tonne, we have 4.3 million barrels (MMBO). This is very approximate.

Now, the BP spill is ongoing as of June 16, so the final numbers of spilled oil are not available. There has been an improved estimate of 35- 60 MB/D, so if the spill lasts 100 days, this would be 3.5 to 6.0 MMBO.

Now, a weakness in these calculations is that there would be no effort to capture spilled oil during WW 2, while substantial volumes are being captured during the BP Spill. Also, the question of the spill rate is still being analyzed by the Task Force. As far as I know, there has been no technical report issued to back up estimated flow rates. We know that the flow rate after the cutting of the riser pipe has to be above 15 MB/D as this is the rate measured coming out of the LMRP.

See links.

This answer keeps changing as each day more oil comes out of the well. It is in the millions of barrels (MMB). June 20 is the 61 day since the spill so the volume =(oil rate) x 61 days.

The problem is that there is no one best estimate for oil rate, but a range that keeps changing. One way of calculating is to use the highest number that anyone has come up with and state that the volume is "up to" this value.

An "up to" estimate using a 100,000 B/D rate, from at least one expert, results in 6.1 MMB. (see link)

The task force estimate is currently the range is 35,000 to 60,000 B/D which results in 2.1 to 3.7 MMB.

Please not that this is the amount out the well or the gross oil spill volume. The capture system is able to remove approximately 20,000 B/D, so going forward, the volumes should be in the order of 15,000 to 40,000 B/D.

The net oil spill volume is the gross oil minus oil captured by the LMRP, skimmers, controlled burns and evaporation. The net oil volume is yet to be determined, but should be considerably below the values given above.

2010, May 4: BP announces beginning of work to start drilling relief wells.

May 5: BP plugs one of the 3 oil rigs. This does not significantly reduce the flow of the oil, but reduces the complexity of the problem.

May 8: BP attempts to place a containment dome over the oil spill but fails.

May 16: Work begins on 2nd relief well.

May 17: Riser insertion tube tool (RITT) is put into place. This collects about 2000 barrels of oil a day, a fraction of the oil being spilled.

As of May 29th, BP announced that 3 consecutive attempts at a 'top kill' had failed. The 'top kill' process involves pumping heavy fluids into the blowout preventer to restrict oil flow, and then permanently sealing it with cement.

June 3: Deployment of the Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) Cap containment system. This plan involves cutting a part off the blow out preventer to leave a cleanly cut pipe which can then be capped. This effort is expected to take 4 days. They proceded with this method on June 3rd, and so far it is helping. However a jagged edge on the pipe might make the cap fall off. BP's next plan is to pump warm water down from the surface of the water, to prevent the cap from forming ice crystals like one of their previous operations. They will also plan to siphon the oil from pipes from the surface of the water.

June 5: LMRP is functional. About 10,000 barrels of oil are collected, though much continues to spill.

About 15,000 barrels of oil are collect per day. Approximately 30 million cubic feet of natural gas is being burned or 'flared' per day.

Other long term efforts include drilling side 'relief wells' into the original borehole. Once the relief wells are in place, they will pump drilling mud into the hole to try and stop the flow. Also, they might replace the blowout preventer with a new one. However, this will take upwards of three months.

Please see links.

As of June 8, BP is:

1) Drilling two relief wells, which each take 3 months to drill. Approximately 90 million dollars will be sent to this effort.

2) A drillship is over the well, collecting more oil each day through a lower marine riser and cap. Rates of over 10,000 barrels per day have been reported. Drillships cost more than 15 million dollars per month, so the cost here will exceed 50 million easily.

3) Setting containment booms to slow the progress of spill. Protective barriers (berms) are being constructed and deployed.

4) Setting controlled burns of the oil where there is sufficient oil to burn (more proximal to the spill).

5) Using dispersants subsea and spraying over spill, to the extent allowed by EPA.

6) Paying contractors to pick up oil patties that are washing up on beaches and netting them where possible in marches.

7) Over 400 boats are now skimming the oil spill.

Cost to BP right now on cleanup is close or over one billion dollars.

See related links.

As of 2010 July 15, BP had replaced the LMRP cap with a 150,000 pound (68000 kg), 5.8 m cap which had completely contained the flow of oil from the main leak. It's stability is currently being tested, but it is hoped that this cap will be able to help siphon 80,000 barrels of oil per day to ships above.

Unfortunately, oil began seeping from the ocean floor elsewhere, leading to the conclusion that the main oil pipe has been damaged.

It was announced on 2010 August 4 that something called "Static Kill" is working and they are almost done with the problem.