BP’s oil spill cap, designed to stop a huge leak from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico, is currently catching around 10,000 barrels a day, its CEO Tony Hayward told the BBC on Sunday.
“As we speak, the containment cap is producing around 10,000 barrels of oil a day to the surface,” Mr Hayward said, adding that this was “probably the vast majority”.
He added that another system to try and contain the oil would be put in place over the next week and should be in place by next weekend. An estimated 20 million gallons of crude has poured into the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon sank on April 22, 50 miles (80 km) off the southern US state of Louisiana.
The spill is the worst environmental disaster in US history. US authorities said Saturday that BP had captured 6,000 barrels in 24 hours. Estimates suggest up to 19,000 barrels a day could be spewing from the leaking well.
Mr Hayward described what had happened as “perhaps a hundred thousand to one in a million occurrence” and gave an “absolute commitment” to return the Gulf coastline to how it was before the disaster. — AFP