BP oil spill facts

The Size of the Spill
127,000 barrels: Amount of oil BP's containment cap has collected since its installation on June 5. (Source: Press Association)
60,000 barrels: The amount of oil believed to be gushing from the spill. That's twelve times more than the original estimate of 5,000 barrels a day. In all, 60,000 barrels a day means an estimated 2.5 million gallons a day is leaking into the Gulf. (Source: Business Week)
11,300 miles: The distance around the world the current amount of leaked oil would stretch if it was placed in milk jugs lined up side by side. To quantify, that's farther than New York to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and back. (Source: New York Times)
102: The number of school gymnasiums that could theoretically be filled floor-to-ceiling with oil from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. (Source: New York Times)
130 miles long and 70 miles wide: Size of the oil slick as of May 17. The slick continues to grow and move. (Source: New Orleans Times Picayune)
11: Number of workers missing and presumed dead following the BP rig explosion. (Source: Huffington Post)
Less than 4: The number of hours the millions of barrels of oil that have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico would have powered the U.S. Economy. (Source: NPR)

The Cost
12,000: Number of Louisiana residents who have filed for unemployment since the spill, most of which have come from the southern part of the state most closely impacted by the spill. (Source: Daily Finance)
$1.6 billion: The confirmed cost of the Gulf oil spill to BP, as of June 14, 2010. (Source: Press Association)
5-42 million: Range of BP's estimated fines, per day. On the low end, is the cost based on BP's conservative estimate of 1,000 barrels a day being lost. On the high end, an estimate of 14,000 barrels a day, which is generally considered a more accurate estimate of the leak. As of May 26, this means that BP could be fined anywhere between $37 million to $1.5 billion. (Source: House of Representatives)
$75 million: The government-mandated cap on oil company liability. Some representatives are calling for the cap to be lifted and a new $10 billion dollar cap be put in place. (Source: Los Angeles Times)
$1.5 billion: Amount in insurance claims experts believe the BP spill will cost insurers. (Source: Business Week)
$62 million: Amount paid out in claims to 26,500 Gulf residents, as of June 14, 2010. (Source: Press Association)


Background on the Gulf Oil Spill
27: Number of offshore gulf drilling operations approved since the BP spill. Two of those were awarded to BP. (Source: Center for Biological Diversity)
30 percent: Percent of the nation's oil production derived from the Gulf of Mexico. (Source: E2 Wire)
1 billion: Number of gallons of oil spilled into the oceans each year, Gulf of Mexico spill notwithstanding. (Source: Union of Concerned Scientists)
137.8 billion gallons: Amount of gasoline Americans consumed in 2008, down 3% from 2007. (Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration)
19.5 million barrels: Amount of oil consumed in the United States per day. (Source: CIA Country Handbook 2008)
2,300 square miles: Number of miles of historic Louisiana coastal marsh and cypress forest (out of 7,000) that have been compromised due to oil drilling. (Source: Environmental Defense Fund)




LINK: http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-bp-oil-spill


SOURCE: "The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill by the Numbers." The Daily Green. Web. 10 May 2012. http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill-facts.