Oil spill Update: Gulf oil spill sea floor leak now confirmed

New reports on the BP oil spill disaster have confirmed that there is a leak on the sea floor several miles from the Macondo well’s blowout preventer, which was capped for well integrity pressure tests last Thursday. Some industry experts say this sub-sea breach has been leaking since the disaster began on April 20, 2010, and has been thus far ignored by a media blackout. 

The undisclosed specific location of the sea floor leak is reported  to be billowing oil and deadly methane gas.

In the early stages of the 90 day-old disaster, oil industry expert Matt Simmons told NBC News that a major area of seepage was coming from an area about 7 miles from the well. Simmons called it the “elephant behind the mouse.”

Simmons may have been referring to the third leak, confirmed by BP on May 5, 2010. That leak has been virtually ignored in what many have been calling an oil spill media blackout, intended to hide the true extent of the damage and potential catastrophic threats from the disaster.

If the sea floor leak announced today is confirmed to be in same location as the one Simmons and Senator Bill Nelson have reported, and BP previously acknowledged, then BP and the government have been aware of it all along and only now decided to address its existence publicly.

Until the exact location of the leak is revealed, it is unclear whether this is the same third leak, or a new one. Either way, the third leak was never declared sealed by BP or the government.