The BP well blew out on April 20 and live video feeds were soon available online. After viewing the video, I sent out an email to friends on May 13 estimating the flow at 68 000 bbl/day.
The basis of the calculation was a 9 inch pipe and visual estimate of the oil flow rate being 10 ft/s. The calculation (linked below) was done in Wolfram|Alpha. It is a good example of using WA to do tricky conversions between units.
The official estimate came out yesterday, 2 months and 20 days later.
The long-awaited result? 62 000 bbl/day.
*************** Original Email ********************************
from Chris Liner
date Thu, May 13, 2010 at 1:05 PM
subject I'm no petroleum engineer...
... but the live feed oil spill video looks like a 9 inch pipe flowing at least 10 ft/sec. If you work up the numbers it comes out to about 68 000 barrels of fluid per day....