Family Life

06.11.10 | FL News Team

If all the oil that's spewed from the Deepwater Horizon well had been used for fuel, it could have powered thousands of cars, trucks and ships. That's the conclusion of a study done by University of Delaware professor James J. Corbett. He's crunched the numbers and says the oil would power 38-thousand cars, 34-hundred trucks and 18-hundred ships for an entire year. Corbett, a professor of marine biology in the University of Delaware's College of Earth, Ocean and Environment, says he based his figures on an estimated flow rate of 19-thousand barrels of oil per day.

 Professor Corbett says at 75-dollars per barrel of crude oil, the oil spilled would have been worth about 90-million dollars if extracted for refining. Corbett's research is focused on ways to improve energy performance in transportation and reduce the need for offshore drilling. He says transportation activities consume about two-thirds of all the petroleum in the U.S., or more than 20-million barrels per day. According to Corbett, gas for automobiles alone accounts for more than two thirds of the country's total transportation energy.