BP’s Oil-Spill Estimate May Be 50% Below U.S. Report, Panel Says

BP Plc may estimate that the amount of oil spilled after the Macondo well blast was as much as 50 percent below reports issued by the U.S., according to the staff of the commission investigating the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

BP said the federal estimate of almost 5 million barrels is “premature and inaccurate,” the London-based company said in an Oct. 21 report to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill that the panel discussed in Washington today.