BP COO: Target Date To Plug Gulf Oil Spill Remains Early August

18th Jun 2010 18:50

HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--BP PLC's (BP, BP.LN) target date to permanently shut down a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is still early August, the date when the first of two relief wells designed to staunch the flow from the damaged Macondo well will be completed, the company said Friday. The primary relief well is going ahead of schedule and is getting closer to the broken well. But the drilling operation will have to slow down in coming weeks as it enters a critical phase to try to intercept the broken pipeline, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said in a conference call. "Things have gone well down to this stage, but that doesn't mean things will continue to go well. This next section of the hole is more challenging," Suttles said. "We haven't changed the official date of when we believe we will be killing the well. That is early August." He also confirmed BP expects to increase the capacity of systems to collect oil from the spill to more than 53,000 barrels a day by the end of the month and to between 60,000 and 80,000 barrels of day by mid-July. Responders at the site of the spill said Friday they captured some 25,000 barrels of oil on Thursday. Suttles said that even in the case of a hurricane, the containment operation will be suspended, but subsea dispersants will be used during any interruption caused by a storm. The leak resulted after Transocean Ltd.'s (RIG) Deepwater Horizon rig, leased by BP, exploded and sank in April, unleashing the largest offshore spill in U.S. history. -By Isabel Ordonez; Dow Jones Newswires; 713.547.9207; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 18, 2010 13:50 ET (17:50 GMT)