Anyone in the oil or fuel management business has most certainly heard of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The enormous explosion that caused the spill from a BP offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico was said by BP to be releasing 5,000 barrels of oil per day. Some experts believe it’s somewhere closer to 25,000 barrels a day after looking further into it. It’s already the worst oil spill in history, even more devastating than the spill in 1989 by Exxon’s Valdez tanker that spilled 11 million gallons of oil. The BP rig is tapped into an underwater oil well and will continue to pump more oil into the ocean until the leak is plugged.
This obviously effects more than just the oil business as now it is a problem for wildlife fisherman, seafood business and many other jobs in the Louisiana area. The pictures and images are miraculous. If you visit www.bp.com you can actually see a live webcam of the riser flow. Bp is using new technology known as the riser insertion tube tool to try to collect the oil. This remains uncertain as there are still various efforts by the government and other parties to determine a more educated flow rate. Even film star Kevin Costner is joining scientists and engineers to figure out a way to clean up this mess. BP is considering his idea. At this point what do they have to lose? The diesel fuel prices have not gone up because of the spill, isn’t that strange?