An internal document from the oil giant BP reveals estimates that oil could, in the worst-case scenario, flow from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of 100,000 barrels a day.
The estimate is far higher than the current United States government estimate of up to 60,000 barrels a day flowing from the ruptured offshore well, the BBC reports.
BP says the figures are irrelevant, because the estimate applies only if a piece of equipment called a blowout preventer is removed, and there are no plans to do so.
The document was released by US congressman, Ed Markey, who says it raises troubling questions about what BP knew and when it knew it.
