Words can tell a story, but numbers have a power all their own. Today, exactly 90 days after the Deepwater Horizon rig accident in the Gulf of Mexico, The Fiscal Times takes a look at some of the key numbers connected to the devastating oil spill.
$20 billion: The amount BP has agreed to commit for economic damage and cleanup. (The fund will not be limited to this, according to the White House.)
$16.8 billion: BP’s profits in 2009, according to its annual report.
$5.92 million: Chief executive Tony Hayward’s total compensation last year.
$10 billion: The value of assets BP seeks to sell to help pay for damages.
$4 billion: BP’s approximate cost to date of dealing with the spill, including containment and cleanup.
$201 million: What BP says it’s paid out so far to individuals and businesses, as of July 16.
32,000: Number of claimants who have received payments in the last 10 weeks. The largest groups include fisherman, who've received $32 million, and shrimpers, who have gotten $18 million, BP says.
126: Number of crew members aboard the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig when it exploded and sank on April 20.
17: Workers injured in that accident.
11: Workers killed in that accident.
3: Number of companies associated with the Deepwater Horizon rig, aside from BP, as a reminder: Transocean owned and operated the rig; Halliburton cemented the well; Cameron International made the blowout preventer that failed.
17,500: Number of National Guard troops authorized to be deployed to the Gulf Coast.
1,652: Number of active National Guard troops in the Gulf.
40,000: Approximate number of people working on cleanup and wildlife protection on the Gulf Coast.
6,400: Number of vessels, including skimmers, tugs, barges, and recovery vessels, at work on containment and cleanup efforts.
185 million gallons: Estimated amount of oil that has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico between April 20 and July 15, when the current sealing cap was installed. (Many believe the actual number could be much higher.)
34.5 million gallons: Estimate of how much oil-water mix has been recovered.
1.84 million gallons: Amount of dispersants poured into the Gulf (1.07 million on the surface, 771,000 below the sea).
7.36 million feet: Amount of sorbent boom deployed to contain the spill.
3.43 million feet: Amount of containment boom deployed.409: Number of controlled burns.
12 million gallons: Amount of oil removed from the water as the result of these burns.
600,000 square miles: Total area of the Gulf of Mexico. It measures about 995 miles from east to west and 560 miles from north to south.
83,927 square miles: Total area of the Gulf’s federal waters currently closed to fishing.
16,000 miles: Length of Gulf Coast shoreline, including bays and inland waterways.
622 miles: Length of Gulf Coast shoreline that is currently oiled — 355 miles in Louisiana, 111 miles in Mississippi, 69 miles in Alabama, and 87 miles in Florida. (The government points out: “These numbers reflect a daily snapshot of shoreline currently experiencing impacts from oil; they do not include cumulative impacts to date, or shoreline that has already been cleared.”)
5: Number of states affected by the spill — Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.
63: Number of years Louisiana has permitted deepwater oil drilling off its coast.
0: Number of years Florida has allowed deepwater oil drilling off its coast.
81 million: Number of visitors each year to Florida, where tourism is the top industry, employing 1 million workers and accounting for 21 percent of sales tax revenues (Florida has no state income tax).
63 million: Number of visitors last year to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama combined, generating $23.2 billion in spending.
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