Friday, June 11, 2010

BP / Gulf Oil Spill - Memo Shows BP's Spill Rate Calculations

Dr. Ian MacDonald at Florida State University just provided us with this BP memo detailing the spill-rate calculations performed by BP. Click it to see the full-sized version. We guess this is how BP came up with their very low estimated leak rates of 42,000 gallons (1,000 barrels) and 210,000 gallons (5,000 barrels) per day. The official estimated leak rate now stands at 20,000-30,000 barrels per day (and possibly much higher).

Read more about the varying spill-rate estimates, and this memo, in a Washington Post article by Joel Achenbach.

Posted by John at 5:07 PM
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5 comments:

  1. Hey John,

    I posted here early on, but haven't posted in a while. So, I trade options for a living, and I probably would have made a killing if I wasn't so impatient with the mainstream media to pick up this story in the beginning.

    I know you're a non-profit, and I admire you to bits, but I think that you could earn some money by providing your expert analysis of this disaster to Wall Street a few hours earlier than you provide it to your blog.

    Basically, the way I would go about it if I were you, is I would put an advert on zerohedge.com or thebigpicture.com advertising your daily reports. You would have to release these reports before 9:30AM EST and probably again at 1PM EST.

    It could be a very simple email preview of your blog. But a news summary and some expert analysis is what people would pay for. If you can hire some smart intern to do this, it probably would be well worth your money, since during the next few months, the question "Is BP going to go under?" will be paramount to Wall Street.

    What better way to stop the next oil disaster than to make those who caused this one pay.
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  2. Just one other note. I don't think anyone in the East Coast establishment undersands the Gulf Current and realizes that the oil from the plum or the sheen will make its way up the coast as summer progresses.

    If you think they are mad now, just wait till it hits home.
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  3. John - thanks for the money-making idea - we certainly could use more help with that around here!

    But we'll keep putting our stuff out, without delay, for whoever wants to make use of it.
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  4. Hey you guys! Where are you? Where are the updated satellite images of the spill? Who is your tying your hands behind your backs? BP? The government?

    This is such an important link to what is going on! We need your transparency of the truth!
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  5. Lu - we are here - see our latest post showing the most recent good satellite image from NASA, taken June 12. Nothing is tying our hands except too much to do and too few resources to do it. If you want to help, please consider making a donation to support SkyTruth.
    ReplyDelete

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