BP's slippery gusher numbers

Guambat noticed a headline somewhere in the last day or so that said, to the effect, BP had contained 40% of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. At the time, he figured, hmmm, 60% of the oil is still gushing.

Wrong.

Heavy oil hits Louisiana shore

BP said it is now siphoning about 3,000 barrels (126,000 gallons/477,000 liters) a day of oil, out of what the company estimated was a 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons/795,000 liters) a day gusher.

"This is not rocket science," said Steve Wereley, associate mechanical engineering professor at Purdue University, who pegged the spill's volume at about 70,000 barrels per day. "All outside estimates are considerably higher than BP's."

BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said on Wednesday its 5,000-barrels-a-day estimate was "highly" uncertain.

Meanwhile, Down Under in Wombat's Waffles, the connection of Haliburton to both the Louisiana spill and a major Australian spill last year was noted.

No waffling there, Davo was quite passionate in his disgust. Might have been something he didn't eat.


FOLLOWING UP: Recall the original estimate that the gusher was at the rate of 5,000 barrels a day, then consider this storyline from today (21st Guam time):

BP says it is capturing 5,000 barrels of oil a day from gulf spill

It's still a gusher:

Estimated rate of oil spill no longer holds up