BP faced accusations of a cover-up Thursday as pressure mounted for an accurate estimate of how much oil has really been gushing out of a ruptured pipe deep in the Gulf of Mexico for the past month.
"We cannot trust BP," said Representative Edward Markey, chairman of the House subcommittee on energy and environment. "It's clear they have been hiding the actual consequences of this spill."
The British energy giant had initially pegged the leak at 1,000 barrels per day, then quickly readjusted its estimate to 5,000 barrels a day after the size of the slick grew exponentially.
Independent experts examining a brief video released last week of the oil gushing out of the larger of two leaks have said the flow appears to be at least 10 times higher.
Giant plumes of oil discovered deep underwater also led scientists to question any estimates of the size of the slick that were based only on what could be seen on the surface.
And in testimony before Markey's committee Wednesday, Purdue University engineering professor Steve Wereley estimated that the flow from both leaks could be as high as 120,000 barrels per day.
"I don't see any possibility, any scenario under which their number is accurate," Wereley said.
"I see potential scenarios in which our numbers would come down, particularly based on the gas-to-oil ratio. But from what I've seen in the videos, I don't see them coming down — the numbers coming down that significantly."
BP has so far resisted calls to provide a more reliable flow estimate, saying that it is focusing its efforts on capping the leak and planning its cleanup response according to a 'worst-case' scenario.
Live video released Thursday showed a significant amount of oil streaming past a mile-long tube inserted into the ruptured pipe to suction crude up to a waiting ship.
"Now that we are collecting 5,000 barrels a day, it might be a little more than that," BP spokesman Mark Proegler said of the company's initial estimate of 5,000 barrels leaking into the water.
He stressed, however, that the company's estimate matched figures issued by US government agencies after the Deepwater Horizon rig sank 50 miles (80 kilometers) offshore on April 22, two days after an explosion that killed 11 workers.
"We said from the beginning, our experts have been saying there really is no reliable way to estimate the flow from the riser, so we have been implementing essentially a response plan," Proegler told AFP.
The firm was estimating the flow using flyovers and "visual operations," he said.
"It's an absurd position that BP has taken that it's not important for them to know how much oil is gushing out of this pipeline," said Representative Henry Waxman, chairman of the House committee on energy and commerce.
"If they don't know that how are they going to plug it up?"
BP "may well know" the actual rate but "would rather not talk about it" because their previous estimates have been so low, Waxman added.
US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the government would issue its own "independent" estimate.
"It has been difficult to get a better, more accurate picture of that because of the very harsh sub-sea conditions that are being operated on," Salazar told CNN.
While the "priority has been to stop the well from leaking," Salazar insisted that "we will have a number that is true and accurate."
Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, acknowledged that there are "well established techniques" which would have allowed for a better estimate of the flow weeks ago.
The problem, she said, is that it would have meant deploying additional submarine robots to videotape and measure the flow and "it's a fairly crowded arena down there."
"The decision was made that the first priority had to be to stop the flow," Lubchenco said in a conference call.
"That is not to say that anyone thought the estimates were unimportant. Everyone thinks it is important to get a good estimate. But the response has not been pegged to a low estimate. It has been pegged to a worst-case scenario."
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