The Gulf gusher field contains 500 million barrels of oil?

Found a news announcement of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil find in the Gulf, from 2009.

The first announcement is from a 2009 USA Today news column,
with a 2nd link to Wiki which also confirms it is Deepwater Horizon in the USA news.

"The well, 250 miles southeast of Houston, was discovered after BP drilled one of the world's deepest exploration wells. It went down 35,000 feet, a distance on par with the cruising altitude of many domestic flights.

BP hasn't released specifics on the size of the field. But if it turns out to be truly "giant," it'll contain more than 500 million barrels of recoverable oil, according to definitions by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The last giant discovered in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico was Thunder Horse in 1999. It's also operated by BP"

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2009-09-02-bp-giant-oil-discovery-in-gulf-of-mexico_N.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon

with info from that activist journalist who picked on the Florida elections so heavily he had to move to England. I forget his name...sorry.

Gist was that BP drilled the current blowout well to about 36,000 feet...but only gave the Haliburton engineers a figure of 18,000 feet and that...may have been why the cement job did not take. Everything was calculated on the 18,000 foot figure.

This thread seems to confirm the possibility of a deeper hole with resulting higher pressures. It also would have screwed the calculations of the mud/cement plugs necessary.