Ongoing Prudhoe Oil Spill - 1,000 Barrels? 19,000 Barrels? Only BP Knows

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A bubbling sound helped workers pinpoint a leak in a pipeline that allowed thousands of gallons of crude oil to spill onto the frozen tundra in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay.

State, federal and oil company officials said the total amount of oil spilled is still not known, but they discounted claims by an oil industry critic that the spill was much larger than BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. is saying.


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As of Sunday afternoon, crews had recovered 1,097 barrels — or more than 46,074 gallons — of crude and snowmelt. The amount spilled is far greater than BP and government officials are saying, according to oil industry critic Chuck Hamel. Hamel, of Alexandria, Va., said he learned from onsite personnel that the spill volume is closer to 798,000 gallons, which would make it the second largest oil spill in Alaska, second only to the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill of 11 million gallons in Prince William Sound.

Hamel said meters record the volume flowing into the pipe as well as the amount leaving it. "There's a 798,000 gallon discrepancy," he said in a phone interview. He declined to provide documentation of the discrepancy, however. Hamel also said operators knew there was a leak at least 36 hours before the spill was found, because the smell of crude vapors was noted. "They knew they had a problem," he said. "They could smell it, but they couldn't find it."

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11696601/