whitson, formerly known as PERA, provided expert advice and consultation related to the fluid description required to estimate total stock-tank barrels oil spilled during the Macondo blowout. The Macondo reservoir was (pre-blowout) found to contain a near-critical fluid system, with four uncontaminated MDT samples exhibiting near-critical behavior – two near-critical dewpoints and two near-critical bubblepoints. An extremely accurate EOS model was built with the purpose of providing PVT properties to all engineering disciplines – mapping the phase and volumetric behavior of produced fluids at HPHT conditions in the reservoir, up through the production pipe, and interaction with ocean waters from seabed to surface.
From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill):
“The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill/leak, the BP oil disaster, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the Macondo blowout) is an industrial disaster that began on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considered to be the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry and estimated to be 8% to 31% larger in volume than the previous largest, the Ixtoc I oil spill, also in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. government estimated the total discharge at 4.9 million barrels (210 million US gal; 780,000 m3). After several failed efforts to contain the flow, the well was declared sealed on September 19, 2010.”