BP can’t stop leaking well after Transocean disaster

Nearly 1,000 barrels of oil a day—that’s 42,000 gallons—are leaking from a damaged well head that was connected onto the now sunken Transocean Deepwater Horizon platform.

BP PLC, which leased the rig, is using robot submarines in an attempt to close valves on equipment 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. The platform itself may hold 700,000 gallons of diesel and an unknown amount of oil has leaked from it. If the robots don’t succeed the company may drill an intervention well. However, doing that might take several months.

The oil sheen is growing exponentially: Friday it appeared to be a manageable clean-up area of two-by-eight miles but the next day it was over 20 miles by 20 miles.

Nasty weather and rough seas Sunday halted cleanup efforts for a second day. Meanwhile, it is estimated that the oil may reach land within one week. Officials believe it could wreak potential havoc upon fragile ecosystems from Louisiana to Florida. The marine habitat includes fish, shrimp, birds and coral.