British energy giant BP Plc plans to double the amount of oil it is capturing from its ruptured Gulf of Mexico well to 20,000 barrels per day, the U.S. Coast Guard admiral leading the government relief effort said on Monday.The figure underscored some scientists' concerns that the May 27 government estimate of the amount of oil billowing from the mile-deep (1.6 km) well, 12,000-19,000 bpd, may be too low. The 49-day-old spill is causing an ecological and economic disaster along the U.S. Gulf Coast.Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said cleaning up the oil spill, which now affected 120 miles (193 km) of coastline, will take at least four to six weeks after the well is eventually sealed. But dealing with the long-term environmental effects will take years, he said."We're no longer dealing with a large, monolithic spill. We're dealing with an aggregation of hundreds of thousands of patches of oil that are going a lot of different directions," Allen said.Allen was speaking at a briefing at the White House, which has sought in recent days to counter a public perception that the Obama administration has not brought the full force of the federal government to bear on the crisis.GRAPHIC: http://link.reuters.com/maj68kPresident Barack Obama said after meeting with Cabinet officials at the White House that the economic impact of the spill, which threatens the Gulf Coast's multibillion dollar fishing industry, will be substantial.Containing the spill, already the worst in U.S. history, poses a critical test for Obama's presidency and BP, which now faces a criminal investigation, lawsuits and billions of dollars wiped from its share price.Obama also said the government is pushing BP to be prepared for the possibility of a hurricane in the Gulf. The Atlantic hurricane season, which is forecast to be unusually active this year, began this month, typically peaks in August and ends in November.Images of birds struggling through oil-soaked waters ringing Louisiana's ecologically fragile barrier islands and marshes have added to the pressure on the Obama administration, which already faces growing public criticism over its handling of the crisis.During the weekend, BP announced advances in controlling the undersea leak through a containment cap over the blown-out wellhead, giving estimates of captured oil that suggest a significant portion of the escaping crude is being collected.The containment cap appears to be the first successful sustained effort to curtain the flow of oil into the sea since the beginning of the disaster. But it has not ended the leak.A live video feed of the seabed leak still shows black crude billowing into the sea, and BP and government officials have said a definitive solution will not come until August when a relief well is drilled. This is intended to intersect the leaking well and allow it to be sealed.'THE BIG UNKNOWN'One high-end estimate by a U.S. government expert panel has put the leak at 25,000 bpd, five times London-based BP's original estimate of 5,000 barrels a day."We still don't know what the flow rate is. That's the big unknown right now," Allen said.BP's latest effort, which involves placing a lower marine riser package (LMRP) containment cap with a seal on jagged remnants of a pipe at the wellhead, was going "fairly well," Allen said.BP said it captured 10,500 barrels of oil on Saturday and 11,100 barrels on Sunday. A total of 27,700 barrels of oil had been collected and 54.7 million standard cubic feet of gas flared off between June 3, when the operation began, and June 6, it said.Allen said BP planned to deploy a second ship to the spill site to help capture the oil "and the combination of these two ... will have a production capability of about 20,000 barrels a day."After a series of failed attempts to stop the gusher, the company is slowly ramping up its oil collection in an effort to stop ice-like hydrates from building up in the containment cap. Hydrates foiled BP's attempt nearly a month ago to cover the leak with a box-shaped containment cover.BP STOCKBP shares, which have lost about one-third of their value since the crisis began, closed slightly lower in London trading. BP's American depositary shares trading in New York were up about 1 percent at midday."With the right LMRP efficiency and surface skimming response, we may have turned the corner on shoreline oil spill volumes," analysts at Credit Suisse said in a research note.But there were still signs of investor skepticism. Nordic bank Nordea said it had divested all its BP shares, worth about 10 million euros ($11.94 million), from its funds and would halt further investment in the company until further notice.Goldman Sachs downgraded its rating on the oil major to "neutral" from "buy."White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said BP, which has so far spent about $1.25 billion on the oil spill response effort, will face billions of dollars in penalties."They are the responsible party. They are going to bear the costs there," Gibbs said. "Those costs are likely to greatly exceed what the oil that is recouped is sold for on the market ... there will be penalties that are involved in this in the many billions of dollars."After contaminating wetland wildlife refuges in Louisiana and barrier islands in Mississippi and Alabama, the black tide of crude has started to hit some of the famous white beaches of Florida, where tourism accounts for nearly 1 million jobs.Fully one-third of the Gulf's federal waters, or 78,603 square miles (202,582 square km), remains closed to fishing, and the toll of dead and injured birds and marine animals, including sea turtles and dolphins, is climbing.(Additional reporting by Bruce Nichols in Houston, Tom Brown in Miami, Jeff Mason, Matt Spetalnick in Washington, Tom Bergin in London; Writing by Pascal Fletcher and Ross Colvin; Editing by Will Dunham)News posted by www.newsinfoline.com
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