Initial Low BP Oil Leak Estimates Did Not Affect Response

From "Poor initial Gulf spill numbers did ‘not impact’ response" by Janet Raloff in ScienceNews:

In the early weeks after the catastrophic blowout of the deep-water well in the Gulf of Mexico this spring, BP — the well’s owner — provided the government dramatically low estimates of the flow rate of oil and gas into the sea. Did telling Uncle Sam and the public that the flow rate was 1,000 barrels per day and later 5,000 barrels per day — when the actual rate was closer to 60,000 barrels per day — affect the spill’s management?

“The answer is no,” said Thad Allen at a September 27 meeting in Washington, D.C., of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. Allen, who recently retired from the Coast Guard, was its commandant during the early days of the spill. He assumed command of the spill's management on day one.

Read the complete article here.

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