Correct - but it does appear to be growing significantly - presumably the outrush is further damaging the pipeline. As it will keep leaking until pressure can be relieved, unlike the necessarily limited spillage from a tanker ship, it wouldn't surprise me if the WV comparison become true by Monday :-/

This is an epic environmental disaster. A similar marine rig spill in Australia^ last year took two months to alleviate by drilling a relief well and pumping mud into it; as with all drilling, several attempts are usually necessary to hit a suitably high-pressure part of the field. And the largest estimate for the output of the Montara spill was only 2000 barrels/day; this one is thought to be leaking between 3-5000b/d (1 barrel/~40 gallons).

And that spill was considerably farther from shore, with a continental shelf limiting the amount of oil that reached south-east Indonesia. The Mississippi Delta, on the other hand...I don't like to think about the damage.

^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montara_oil_spill

Definitely not disagreeing on the epic, just on scale :) And didn't know most of that, thanks for the info (haven't followed this spill very closely).

Apologies, I heard that claim on the news in passing ... perhaps it was a projection and I missed that bit.