Fix may have boosted oil spill

NEW ORLEANS – Federal officials conceded Wednesday that efforts to contain the well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico may have boosted the amount of oil gushing out, but predicted they would be able to nearly double the quantity of crude collected by next week.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar also reassured congressional representatives from the beleaguered Gulf states that a six-month moratorium on drilling that many here have called economically ruinous could be lifted sooner if new studies and protections are put into place.

“If it can be done before six months, then there’s a possibility that we could take a look at it before then,” Salazar told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

U.S. Coast Guard officials said BP is drawing 15,000 barrels a day of oil into a containment ship a mile above the leak, and is expected to increase that capacity to 28,000 barrels a day by next week with the arrival of the first of two vessels steaming for the Gulf. The Senate on Wednesday night passed a bill raising the cap on a liability pool used to cover the spill response.

New equipment will enable cleanup commanders to burn off oil and gas that exceeds what can be gathered and shuttled to shore, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is overseeing the response, told reporters.

Scientists will scrutinize new high-definition video and compare it with old footage to answer within days one of the most troublesome questions dogging the cleanup: How much oil is leaking?

Although recent government estimates put the leak at 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day – nearly three times what well operator BP reported in the initial days – it now appears that the flow may have grown larger when a kinked riser pipe was cut to fit the temporary containment cap on June 3.

“The rate of increase may have been somewhere between 4 and 5 percent of what it was before,” Salazar told the Senate committee.

Local officials have expressed continuing frustration that no one has seemed to be able to say how much oil has been spilled – a crucial determinant of the level of liability BP faces in paying out the growing number of claims associated with the spill.

“What I want to know is, how much oil do they think is out there in the water? How much oil is continuing to be released?” said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. “It’s very frustrating that, over 50 days into this, they still don’t have a reliable estimate.”

Jindal said he has resisted any demand that President Barack Obama, who is planning a fourth trip to the region next week, issue a federal disaster declaration on the Gulf Coast, in part because he does not want to do anything to limit BP’s liability for cleaning up the mess and paying damages.