Volume and extent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Volume and extent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill The "Deepwater Horizon" oil spill was discovered on the afternoon of 22 April 2010 when a large oil slick began to spread at the former rig site. According to the Flow Rate Technical Group, the leak amounted to about of oil, exceeding the 1989 "Exxon Valdez" oil spill as the largest ever to originate in U.S.-controlled waters and the 1979 Ixtoc I oil spill as the largest spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP has challenged this calculation saying that it is overestimated as it includes over of oil which was
Prudhoe Bay oil spill Bay oil field, which would reduce Alaska North Slope oil production by an estimated 400,000 barrels per day. Later BP decided not to shut the western side of the field, meaning Prudhoe Bay would still produce about 200,000 barrels a day, half its normal total. Oil revenue accounts for 90% of Alaska's tax income. As a result of news of the shutdown, the price of crude oil on NYMEX jumped US$2.22 a barrel closing at US$76.98 per barrel. Following the Prudhoe Bay pipeline leak in March 2006, due to slow progress in stopping the oil spill, BP was forced to