oil spill at sea is five times greater than expected

At least 5000 barrels of oil are leaking daily in the Gulf of Mexico, a volume five times higher than previously estimated, said on Wednesday the U.S. Coast Guard.

"They discovered a fresh leak," said Officer Erik Swanson told AFP. This is equivalent to "5000 barrels a day." Emergency workers on Wednesday began a controlled burn of the massive oil slick caused by the explosion of a platform in the Gulf of Mexico, the threat of oil reaching the coast of Louisiana.
"It burned with a small buoy that moves the spot and ignites. The burning occurs satisfactorily," said Coast Guard officer Cory Mendenhall about the operation to alleviate the effects of the spill caused by the sinking of the oil platform on the American coast in Thursday evening.
The drastic decision to fire the oil slick was adopted after being spotted arriving at about 40 km from the swamps of Louisiana, habitat for many species. A fleet of Coast Guard ships and the British oil company BP pushed the densest parts of the stain to a floating fire-resistant barrier.
"The plan is to burn, so restricted and controlled, thousands of gallons of oil, and each operation should take about an hour," explained the authorities and the BP. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) U.S. warned earlier that the strong southeast winds planned for the coming days could push the oil slick into the swamps of Louisiana.
The Deepwater Horizon platform, operated by BP, sank on Thursday afternoon 240 km southeast of New Orleans, two days after an explosion that killed 11 workers.
The burning of the oil slick to protect the coast will cause its own environmental problems, creating huge clouds of toxic smoke and leaving waste at sea. On Tuesday, failed attempts to close two foci of leakage in the pipeline connected to the platform, carried by four robotic submarines to 1,500 meters deep.