Seeps and Spills

Wikipedia says, “The Coal Oil Point seep field offshore from Santa Barbara, California is a petroleum seep area of about three square kilometres, adjacent to the Ellwood Oil Field, and releases about 40 tons of methane per day and about 19 tons of reactive organic gas (ethane, propane, butane and higher hydrocarbons), about twice the hydrocarbon air pollution released by all the cars and trucks in Santa Barbara County in 1990. The liquid petroleum produces a slick that is many kilometres long and when degraded by evaporation and weathering, produces tar balls which wash up on the beaches for miles around.

“This seep also releases on the order of 100 to 150 barrels (16 to 24 m3) of liquid petroleum per day. The field produces about 9 cubic meters of natural gas per barrel of petroleum.”

There are 42 gallons in a barrel of oil. This means that between 4,200 and 6,300 gallons of oil are released into the ocean every day. This means that in less than four weeks, as much oil will have been naturally released into the ocean as there was from this disastrous oil spill.