DOE Releases Raw Data on Oil Spill

There’s little good information about how much oil is leaking in the Gulf or how well the “top hat” that was designed to capture some of it is working (or whether, indeed, it’s making things worse).

But some numbers have been trickling in, and now Energy Secretary Steven Chu is making the data publicly available at a new webpage. The data includes the amount of oil and gas and methanol recovered from an insertion tube last month and now from the top hat system. It also includes drawings of the ruptured well and the technology being used to capture some of the leak. The Department of Energy says more data is on the way.

The information is being made available so that outside experts can analyze it. “We want to make sure that independent scientists, engineers and other experts have every opportunity to review this information and make their own conclusions,” Chu said, according to a press release.