The Flow Rate Technical Group is a group of scientists and engineers from the United States federal government, universities, and research institutions created May 19, 2010, for an official scientific-based estimate of the flow of oil in the

Deepwater Horizon oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill (also referred to as the "BP oil spill") was an industrial disaster that began on 20 April 2010 off of the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considered ...

. It issued an interim report on May 27. It was convened again on June 10 by Coast Guard Admiral

Thad Allen Thad William Allen (born 16 January 1949) is a former admiral of the United States Coast Guard who served as the 23rd commandant from 2006 to 2010. Allen is best known for his widely praised"Coast Guard's Chief of Staff To Assist FEMA Head B ...

after the

drilling riser A drilling riser is a conduit that provides a temporary extension of a subsea oil well to a surface drilling facility. Drilling risers are categorised into two types: marine drilling risers used with subsea blowout preventer (BOP) and generally us ...

from the well was cut by Maxx3 ROV Dive #35 on May 31, 2010, in an attempt to redirect the flow. Large amounts of oil were not being captured and the group was convened to estimate how much.

Membership

The group is led by

Marcia McNutt Marcia Kemper McNutt (born February 19, 1952) is an American geophysicist and the 22nd president of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of the United States. Previously, she served as editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal ''Science'' fro ...

. Members of the group are: *Bill Lehr,

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditi ...

(Lead) *Alberto Aliseda, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering,

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seat ...

*Paul Bommer, Senior Lecturer, Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering,

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

*Peter Cornillon, Professor of Oceanography,

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Island ...

*Pedro Espina,

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...

*Juan Lasheras, Prof. of Engineering and Applied Sciences,

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

Ira Leifer Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law * Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...

, Assoc. Researcher, Marine Science Institute,

University of California Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the Un ...

*James Riley, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington *Omer Savas, Professor of Mechanical Engineering,

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

*Franklin Shaffer, Senior Research Engineer,

National Energy Technology Laboratory The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is a U.S national laboratory under the Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy. NETL focuses on applied research for the clean production and use of domestic energy resources. NETL performs ...

, Department of Energy *

Steve Wereley Steve Wereley is a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University. His areas of research include Micro- and Nanofluidics, Particle Image Velocimetry, Opto-microfluidics and bio-MEMS. He is the co-inventor of micro-PIV. Education In ...

, Professor of Mechanical Engineering,

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...

*Poojitha Yapa, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering,

Clarkson University Clarkson University is a private research university with its main campus in Potsdam, New York, and additional graduate program and research facilities in the New York Capital Region and Beacon, New York. It was founded in 1896 and has an en ...

Plume modeling

Uses video of the oil/gas mixture escaping from the damaged well, using particle image velocimetry analysis to estimate fluid velocity and flow volume.

Mass balance

Used remote sensing data from deployment of the Airborne Visible InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) and satellite imagery to calculate the amount of oil on the ocean surface for each day. The figures were corrected the value for oil evaporated, skimmed, burned, and dispersed up to that day and divided by time to produce an average rate. * Victor Labson, Director, Crustal Geophysics and Geochemistry Science Center (lead) * Roger N. Clark, Lead Scientist, Research Physical Scientist * Gregg A. Swayze, research geologist * Todd M. Hoefen, research geophysicist * Raymond Kokaly, research geophysicist * K. Eric Livo, research geophysicist * Michael H. Powers, research geophysicist * Geoffrey S. Plumlee, research geologist * Gregory P. Meeker, research geologist

Reservoir modeling

Describes the geologic formations as well as composition and pressures of the oil, natural gas, and other compounds that are being released. Using open-hole logs; pressure, volume, and temperature data; core samples; and analog well or reservoir data; the team will populate computer models and determine flow rate from targeted sands in the well as a function of bottomhole pressure. *Don Maclay, Petroleum Engineer, MMS Gulf Regional Office (Lead) *Other MMS engineers

Nodal analysis

Uses input from reservoir modeling (including pressure, temperature, fluid composition and properties over time) and pressure and temperature conditions at the leak points on the sea floor, along with details of the geometries of the well, BOP, and riser to calculate fluid compositions, properties, and fluxes from both before and after riser removal. *George Guthrie,

, Department of Energy (Lead) *Roger Aines,

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response ...

, Department of Energy *Grant Bromhal, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Department of Energy *Roy Long, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Department of Energy *David Hetrick,

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a U.S. multiprogram science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered, managed, and operated by UT–Battelle as a federally funded research an ...

, Department of Energy *Bryan Morreale, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Department of Energy *Curt Oldenburg,

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as the Berkeley Lab, is a United States national laboratory that is owned by, and conducts scientific research on behalf of, the United States Department of Energy. Located in ...

, Department of Energy *Rajesh Pawar,

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, i ...

, Department of Energy *Jud Virden,

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is one of the United States Department of Energy national laboratories, managed by the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science. The main campus of the laboratory is in Richland, Washington. ...

, Department of Energy

References

{{Deepwater Deepwater Horizon oil spill