The toxic legacy of BP's oil spill

The BP oil well is to be plugged permanently with cement this weekend. Five months on from the spill these figures reveal the extent of the devastation.

11
Platform workers were killed when the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded on April 20. Their bodies have never been found, despite a three-day Coast Guard search operation. Seventeen others were injured.

36
The number of hours for which Deepwater Horizon burned before it sank on the morning of April 22, 2010.

4.9 Million
The total number of barrels of crude oil released before the leak was capped on July 15. This makes Deepwater Horizon the biggest oil spill to have occurred in US-controlled waters, exceeding the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989, which released 750,000 barrels.

4 million
The number of barrels of crude oil it would take, according Harry Roberts of Louisiana State University, to "wipe out marine life deep at sea near the leak and elsewhere in the Gulf" as well as "along hundreds of miles of coastline".

1000
BP's initial prediction of the leak in barrels per day. The real figure was 53,000.

1524
The depth below sea-level, in metres, at which Deepwater Horizon was drilling at the time of the explosion. It could operate in waters of up to 2438m in depth and drill as far down 9144m.

9971
The square-kilometre spread of the leaked oil, which had landed along 200km of Louisiana's coast by June 4. Three weeks later, oil began to wash up on Pensacola Beach in Florida and at the nearby Gulf Islands National Seashore nature reserve.

50-60
The percentage of the oil spill thought to have remained on the water. 35 per cent was thought able to evaporate.

3
The percentage of oil that it was possible to skim off. The remainder had to be removed through the use of other methods, such as burning, chemical dispersion and direct extraction.

125
The weight, in tonnes, of the containment dome placed over the largest leak. Oil was then piped to a storage vessel on the surface. BP's initial containment strategy, this failed when leaking gas combined with cold water to create methane hydrate crystals, blocking the pipe way.

92,000
The number of clean-up suggestions received by BPs dedicated oil spill helpline between May and June. 320 were categorised as promising. In the meantime, some 170 US Coast Guard vessels, 7500 employees, and 2000 volunteers had been engaged in grassroots clean-up activity.

4768
The number of dead animals collected as of August 13: 4080 of these were birds and 525 sea turtles.

US$2.5 billion
Initial estimated cost of the oil spill to the US fishing industry.

US$1 billion
The value of the seafood harvested in the Gulf in 2008.

US$23 billion
The estimated cost, according to the US Travel Association, of the oil spill to the Gulf Coast tourist industry.

- Independent