The United States is quickly becoming the world’s largest oil producer, a significant component of this increased production capacity is related to an expansion of offshore oil drilling.

Offshore oil drilling has always been an environmentally risky process. The potential for catastrophic failures was most visible during the 2010 Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Deep Water Horizon accident was newsworthy due to its sudden and dramatic nature, but there are many smaller oil spills which have failed to make it to the forefront of the public conversation.

One of the oils spills occurring right now is the Taylor Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which has been releasing oil into the gulf for more than a decade. Despite the significantly slower rate of release, the duration of this oil spill has resulted in a stunning 176 million gallons (approximately 4.2 million barrels) being released in total. This oil spill was not noticed until 2010 after the Deep Water Horizon disaster by regular people rather than a Government watchdog or the Coast Guard. By the time it was noticed, oil had already been spilling every day for six years.

This brings into question, how many oils spills are not currently being reported or are just ignored because they are not a dramatic enough news story?

To read more about the Taylor oil spill, please refer to following links: CNN, San Diego Union Tribune.