As of January 25, 2007, MMS identified 125 spills of petroleum products totaling 16,302 barrels that were lost from platforms, rigs, and pipelines on the Federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) as a result of damages from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
 

Those spills did not occur due to loss of control of the producing wells.
 

There were no major spills (2,381 barrels per spill or greater) according to USCG official standards.
 

The USCG defines offshore spills of less than 10,000 gallons (238 barrels) as “MINOR”; offshore spills of 10,000 to 99,999 gallons (238 to 2,380 barrels) as “MEDIUM”; and offshore spills of 100,000 gallons, (2,381 barrels) and greater as “MAJOR”.
 

According to a report on “Oil in the Sea” from the National Academy of Sciences (1995), far more oil enters the ocean from natural, underwater seeps than from offshore production platforms. In fact, the seeps introduce about 1700 barrels of oil a day into U.S. marine waters, which is about 150 times the amount from oil and gas activities.
 

Over the past 20 years, less than .001 percent of the oil produced in U.S. state and federal waters have been spilled.
 

The loss of oil from the Federal OCS wells themselves was minimal due to the successful operation of the safety valves that are required by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) to be installed on every well at least 100 feet below the ocean floor.
 

All facilities on the Outer Continental Shelf in areas threatened by the hurricanes are “shut in” prior to a storm’s arrival, meaning that pipelines are closed and platforms are secured for heavy weather.
 

Oil losses were mostly limited to the oil stored on platforms that were damaged or oil contained in individual segments of pipelines that were damaged.
 

There were no accounts of spills from facilities on the OCS that reached the shoreline, or oiled birds or mammals, or involved any large volumes of oil to be collected or cleaned up.
 

The five largest spills were estimated to be between 1,000 barrels and 2,000 barrels. Two of the five spills may have only been a couple of hundred barrels. These five spills represent only 4 percent of all the spills but total 8,428 barrels and 52 percent of the total spillage. The table below provides more details: