Since BP used an experimental cap to stop oil from flowing nearly two weeks ago, not much crude has shown up on the water’s surface. So, where has the oil in the Gulf of Mexico gone?
Jane Lubchenco, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said scientists are working on producing an estimate of how much oil has been skimmed, burned, contained, evaporated and dispersed. The numbers are not available yet.
“We know that a significant amount of the oil has disbursed and been biodegraded by naturally occuring bacteria,” Lubchenco told reporters Tuesday during a press briefing.
Lubchenco said that some oil remains on the surface of the 600 miles of the Gulf coast shoreline affected by the spill, but the amount is less since the cap stopped the flow.
BP senior vice president Kent Wells said Tuesday that the energy giant’s ability to find oil to skim has been difficult as less oil appears on the surface.
Scientists are worried that much of the crude is trapped below the surface after more than 770,000 gallons of chemical dispersant were used to break up the oil, the Associated Press reports.
“What is down there is a smaller particle,” chemical oceanographer John Kessler from Texas A&M told the AP. “You can’t think of it as thick, nasty crude.”
Kessler sampled the waters around the well and found high natural gas levels more than 3,000 feet below the surface and miles-long underwater oil plumes, the AP reports.
Lubchenco said the oil was primarily in the water column itself and not sinking to the seafloor. She added that the oil beneath the surface appears to be being biodegraded quickly.
“There is still likely a significant amount of oil out there simply because there was so much released,” she said.
