BP gulf disaster spilled a total of 4.4m barrels

BP’s stricken well in the Gulf of Mexico spilled an estimated 4.4 million barrels of oil into the ocean before it was capped, the first objective study of the disaster has concluded.

The quantity of oil that poured from the Deepwater Horizon well for three months was enough to fill 700,000 cubic metres.

The gushing well head was capped in July, but the full impact of the world’s worst oil catastrophe is still being unravelled.