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United States News Title: BP’s Cap Is Recovering Gulf Oil, May Get 90% of Leak June 4 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc said its effort to divert oil leaking from its Gulf of Mexico well to a ship on the surface is working, with a goal of capturing more than 90 percent of the spill. Recovery of oil aboard the drillship began about midnight and may have reached a rate of 1,000 barrels a day, based on a BP estimate, U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said today during a conference call with reporters. Government scientists had estimated the well was leaking 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of oil a day, a figure that may have increased as much as 20 percent after London-based BP yesterday cut away a kinked riser pipe to install the cap. “I’d like to see us capture 90-plus percent of this flow,” Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer for exploration and production, said on CBS’s “Early Show.” “That’s possible with this design. We have to work through the next 24 to 48 hours to optimize that.” The well began leaking after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20 and sank two days later, resulting in the deaths of 11 workers. Four valves on the cap BP installed yesterday are venting oil and the continued flow isn’t an indication the effort has failed, Suttles said on CNN. Engineers expect today to close the valves, designed to prevent clogging, he said. ‘It’s Progress’ “It’s progress, that’s for sure,” Robert Bea, a University of California Berkeley engineering professor, said of the oil recovery. “Given that we are now in the hurricane season, and there is high likelihood of seeing tropical storms and hurricanes in the very near future, there should be continuing concern if this system can survive such conditions,” he said. Oil was seen pouring around the cap when it was installed last night because the pipe connecting the cap to the drillship was filled with nitrogen gas to prevent clogging, Allen said. “It’s almost like this: If you were to put your finger over the top of a straw and put it into a glass of water and then slowly lift your finger off every once in a while so that the straw would fill up with water,” Allen said. “They’re trying to fill that pipe with nothing but product that’s coming from the reservoir.” The biggest oil spill in U.S. history has soiled at least 140 miles (225 kilometers) of coastline, halted new exploratory drilling in the Gulf and shut down a third of its fishing areas. The leak is 40 miles off Louisiana’s coast under about 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) of water. Separate Slicks President Barack Obama returns to the Louisiana coast today to assess the latest efforts to counter the spill. Oil from the spill has split into separate slicks that threaten beaches and marshland from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to Pensacola, Florida, as winds shift northeastward, Allen said. “The scope of this thing is expanding to the point that it is rather unprecedented,” Allen said. “We will continue to press for resources.” Florida Governor Charlie Crist asked BP America President Lamar McKay for $50 million in a letter yesterday. The state has already exhausted $25 million provided by the company last month to protect coastline and organize cleanups, Crist wrote. BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward told investors today on a conference call the spill has the “first call” on the company’s funds and financial consequences of the spill will be “severe.” “My number one priority is to steer BP through this crisis, and that is exactly what I intend to do,” he said. Hayward said he has received “extraordinary support” from the board. BP rose as much as 4.7 percent today. The stock gained 1.1 pence to 433.35 pence at 4:35 p.m. in London. The shares have fallen 34 percent since the rig exploded.
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