New cap catching about half of oil spill, says BP

VENICE, FLORIDA – BP’s containment cap is capturing about half the oil shooting from a ruptured Gulf of Mexico well, but US admiral…

VENICE, FLORIDA – BP’s containment cap is capturing about half the oil shooting from a ruptured Gulf of Mexico well, but US admiral Thad Allen says the coast will be under siege from the massive spill for many more months.

BP said its latest effort had captured 10,500 barrels of oil (1.67 million litres) in 24 hours and a second containment system should enable it to soon control the vast majority of oil spewing from the leak about 1.6km below the surface.

The progress came as the company’s chief executive Tony Hayward said yesterday that he had no plans to quit over his handling of the environmental disaster marked by a string of failures since the April 20th rig explosion that triggered the oil spill and killed 11 oil rig workers.

Adm Allen, the coast guard admiral heading up the federal relief effort, estimated the maximum collection from the containment device at about 15,000 barrels a day. Estimates put the well’s leak at 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day.

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Despite the progress, Adm Allen told CBS's Face the Nationprogramme yesterday: "This will only end when we intercept the wellbore, pump mud down it to overcome the pressure of the oil coming up from the reservoir and put a cement plug in.

“This will be well into the fall. This is a siege across the entire Gulf. This spill is holding everybody hostage, not only economically but physically, and it has to be attacked on all fronts.”

Pressure has mounted on London-based BP to stop the leak from the ruined seabed well and bear the full financial cost of the clean- up and damage caused to Gulf coast fisheries, wildlife and tourism.

Mr Hayward became a lightning rod for Americans’ anger with BP when he told struggling Gulf Coast residents last month that he “would like my life back”, a remark widely seen as insensitive.

"It hasn't crossed my mind," Mr Hayward said when asked by the Sunday Telegraphif he might resign because of the spill. "It's clearly crossed other people's minds but not mine."

He told the BBC he had the full support of BP’s board and the company’s balance sheet was strong, despite the plunge in the company’s market value as a result of the disaster.

“BP is . . . generating a lot of cash. It will generate $30 to $35 billion of free cash flow this year . . . We have the financial strength to see through this,” he told the BBC.

“We have a further containment system to implement in the course of this coming week which will be in place by next weekend,” he added. “When these two are in place we . . . hope to be containing the vast majority of the oil.”

Adm Allen told ABC's This Weekthat the number of slicks in the water was making the clean-up difficult.

“One of the problems with this entire spill is it’s not a monolithic, huge spill,” he said. “It’s disaggregated itself into hundreds, maybe thousands of smaller pieces of oil.”

BP faces a criminal investigation, lawsuits, dwindling investor confidence and questions about its credit-worthiness. Its shares have lost about one-third of their value since the crisis began.

BP says it has spent $1 billion on the spill and has vowed to pay all legitimate claims of those harmed by the disaster.

After contaminating wetland wildlife refuges in Louisiana and barrier islands in Mississippi and Alabama, the black tide of crude oil has taken aim at some of the famous white beaches of Florida, whose economy is heavily dependent on tourism.

Florida governor Charlie Crist told CNN the oil debris washing up on Panhandle beaches was relatively easy to clean up because it was landing on the famous sugar-white beaches instead of in marshes or estuaries, as in Louisiana.

Fully one-third of the Gulf’s federal waters, or 202,582sq km, remains closed to fishing, while the toll of dead and injured birds and marine animals, including sea turtles and dolphins, is climbing. – (Reuters)