WASHINGTON, June 20 (UPI) -- BP understated publicly how much oil it believed could be leaking from its Gulf of Mexico well under a "worst-case scenario," an internal document shows.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass, who released the document Sunday, said it shows that as BP executives were telling Congress 5,000 barrels a day were leaking -- and 60,000 could leak under a "worst-case scenario" -- the company's internal analysis had put the worst-case figure at 100,000 barrels a day.
"This document raises very troubling questions about what BP knew and when they knew it," Markey said. "It is clear that, from the beginning, BP has not been straightforward with the government or the American people about the true size of this spill. Now the families living and working in the gulf are suffering from their incompetence."
The scenario, the highest estimate made public yet, is based on the flow rate if the blowout preventer and wellhead were removed or the well bore were heavily damaged.
"BP needs to tell us what it will do if the well bore is compromised and 100,000 barrels per day of oil spills into the ocean," Markey said.
BP called the early estimate irrelevant, saying it was based on removal of the blowout preventer, which the company never did.
The federal government has updated the best estimate of the flow rate to 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day and says the recovery capacity must be increased.
