2000ft.
Because there is a lot of oil down there. They cannot figure out an effective way to cap the leak. Many measures have been tried and so far, none of the measures attempted have worked very well.
About 24 million gallons of oil have been skimmed from the Gulf of Mexico so far.
What caused the the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was an oil well blowout and explosion.
41 miles
well....... the oil spill hit the gulf of Mexico
As of May 19, 2010; the oil pipe off Louisiana is Still leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It will be leaking oil well into the foresee future.
a week after the accedent
Oil is flowing from an oil deposit, up the well and into the gulf water. So, I think you are asking how much producible oil is in the reservoir. BP indicated that the producible oil is approximately 50 million barrels or 2,100 million gallons. So, letting the well flow until all the oil in the reservoir is gone is not an option.
3 miles below the surface
88 days so far
The oil will more than likely not stop until the well runs out. Our current technology is not sufficient enough to stop the oil. The amount of oil that will eventually leak out is enough to polute the entire gulf and Atlantic.
The current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is from an oil well under 5,000 of water.