The amount of oil discharged into the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana’s coast last week is substantially higher than initial estimates, the U.S. Coast Guard says.
Oil spewed out of an underwater fractured pipe, about 40 miles southeast of Venice, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
The operator, LLOG Exploration Offshore, initially estimated that 7,950 to 9,350 barrels had discharged. But the Coast Guard says that LLOG Exploration Offshore now reports about 16,000 barrels of oil were spilled.
Multiple flights over the area have detected no recoverable oil, the Coast Guard adds. Skimming vessels from Clean Gulf Associates and Marine Spill Response Corporation remain on standby. The spill is believed to be the largest in the Gulf of Mexico since the 2010 blowout of BP’s Macondo well sank the Deepwater Horizon rig, discharging 3 million barrels of oil and killing 11 people.
