NEW ORLEANS (AP) - BP conceded Thursday that more oil than it
estimated is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico as heavy crude washed
into Louisiana's wetlands for the first time, feeding worries and
uncertainty about the massive monthlong spill.
Mark Proegler, a spokesman for oil giant BP PLC, said a
mile-long tube inserted into a leaking pipe over the weekend is
capturing 210,000 gallons a day - the total amount the company and
the Coast Guard have estimated is gushing into the sea - but some
is still escaping. He would not say how much.
Several professors who have watched video of the leak have
already said they believe the amount spewing out is much higher
than the official estimates.
Proegler said the 210,000 gallons - 5,000 barrels - has always
been just an estimate because there is no way to measure how much
is spilling from the seafloor.
The well blew out after an explosion a month ago on the offshore
drilling rig Deepwater Horizon that killed 11 people.
Brown ooze from the spill coated marsh grasses and hung in the
shallow water of a wetland at Louisiana's southeastern tip, the
first heavy oil seen on shore so far. Gov. Bobby Jindal declared
Wednesday it was just the outer edge of the real spill, much
heavier than an oily sheen seen before.
"This is the heavy oil that everyone's been fearing that is
here now," Jindal said during a boat tour. The wetlands at the
mouth of the Mississippi are home to rare birds, mammals and a wide
variety of marine life.
BP, which was leasing the rig when it exploded, was marshaling
equipment and conducting tests Thursday ahead of a new effort to
choke off the oil's flow. Crews hoped that by Sunday they can start
a procedure known as a "top kill," which involves pumping heavy
mud into the crippled equipment on top of the well, then
permanently sealing it with cement.
The procedure has been used before to halt gushing oil above
ground, but like other methods BP is exploring it has never been
used 5,000 feet below the sea. That's why scientists and engineers
have spent much of the last week preparing and taking a series of
measurements to make sure that the mission doesn't backfire.
"The philosophy from the beginning is not to take any action
which could make the situation worse, and those are the final steps
we're doing," said Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer.
In addition to the oil washing up in Louisiana, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday that a small
portion of the slick had entered the so-called loop current, a
stream of fast moving water that circulates around the Gulf before
bending around Florida and up the Atlantic coast. Its arrival may
portend a wider environmental catastrophe affecting the Florida
Keys and tourist-dotted beaches along that state's east coast.
Tracking the unpredictable spill and the complex loop current is
a challenge for scientists, said Charlie Henry, a NOAA
environmental scientist.
The loop moves based on the shifting winds and other
environmental factors, so even though the oil is leaking
continuously it may be in the current one day, and out the next.
And the slick itself has defied scientists' efforts to track it and
predict its path. Instead, it has repeatedly advanced and
retreated, an ominous, shape-shifting mass in the Gulf, with vast
underwater lobes extending outward.
Even farther south, U.S. officials were talking to Cuba about
how to respond to the spill should it reach the island's northern
coast, a U.S. State Department spokesman said.
Florida's state meteorologist said it will be at least another
seven days before the oil reaches waters west of the Keys, and
state officials sought to reassure visitors that beaches are still
clean and safe. During a news conference, David Halstead, the
director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, showed
off a picture of a Coppertone bottle on a beach.
"What's the only oil on the beaches? Suntan oil," Halstead
said.
Tar balls found earlier in the Florida Keys were not from the
spill, the Coast Guard said Wednesday. Still, at least 6 million
gallons have already poured into the Gulf off Louisiana since the
rig explosion. The Exxon Valdez tanker spilled 11 million gallons
in Alaska in 1989.
Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., said in a news release that BP
complied with his request that a live feed of the oil spill be made
publicly available on the Web.
It was not available Thursday morning but Eben Burnham-Snyder,
spokesman for the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and
Global Warming, said in an e-mail that it should show up soon.
Greenpeace activists scaled BP's London headquarters Thursday to
hang a flag accusing the oil company of polluting the environment.
The group said the action was prompted by the Gulf of Mexico oil
spill as well as a controversial project in Canada.
"It takes some cheek to go and use a sunflower logo when your
business is dirty oil," Greenpeace activist Ben Stewart said from
a balcony above the headquarters' front door in a telephone
interview.
BP spokesman Robert Wine called the action "a very calm and
genteel protest," and said no employees had been prevented from
getting to work.
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