The following is a fact-check from the May 30, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:

ROBERT DUDLEY (BP) | Original oil flow estimates were 5,000 barrels a day and were based on satellite pictures – HALF TRUE

MR. DUDLEY:  The original estimates, which were government and BP estimates together, primarily unified estimates of 5,000 barrels a day, were based on satellite pictures.

According to ABC news, the coast guard and BP originally estimated that only a 1000 barrels of oil a day were spilling into the gulf. Then, according to the New York Times, the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, through aerial observations, made the estimate of 5,000 barrels a day. After the new estimate by the NOAA, Admiral Landry, of the Coast Guard, conducted a press conference emphasizing that the leak was 5,000 barrels a day, not a 1,000 barrels that had been previously reported. However, Doug Suttle, chief operating officer for BP, still claimed that the original estimate of a 1,000 barrels was accurate.

The NOAA estimate of 5000 barrels were based on aerial observations, but that estimate was not the original, it was the second. The first estimate was only a 1,000 barrels of oil spilling a day. Therefore, we will rate Mr. Dudley’s misleading statement HALF TRUE.

This fact check took 1.5 hours.