CORRECT: BP Resumes Containment Operation After Brief Stoppage

15th Jun 2010 23:41

("3rd UPDATE: BP Resumes Containment Operation After Brief Stoppage," published at 6:13 p.m. EDT, misstated the time when the containment operation resumed. The corrected version follows.) By Susan Daker Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) on Tuesday shut down its oil containment and recovery operation in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico for several hours as a safety precaution, following a fire aboard the vessel that has been processing the oil. Tuesday's shutdown, though temporary, marked the latest snag in the company's two-month effort to contain oil spewing from the broken Macondo well at rates that a team of government and independent scientists now estimate at 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day. The company, which has come under increasing pressure as the growing spill threatens to cause massive environmental and economic damage, shut down its containment operations after a small fire on the Discoverer Enterprise was discovered around 10:30 a.m. EDT. The fire, which was likely caused by lightning, was quickly extinguished and no one was injured, BP said. The Discoverer Enterprise resumed operations at 3:15 p.m. EDT, the company said in a press release. The containment system implemented 11 days ago has been the first procedure to show success in capturing large quantities of oil, collecting about 15,000 barrels a day. The U.K. oil giant's statement didn't say how the fire might affect the ship's collection rate on Tuesday. Officials from BP and the government-led response team weren't immediately available for further comment Tuesday afternoon. U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the government's front man in the response effort, has repeatedly warned that severe weather conditions, from lightning to hurricanes, could postpone containment efforts at any time. News of the temporary halt in the containment procedures come in the wake of heightened scrutiny of the actions of BP, the broader oil industry and the federal government. On Tuesday, executives from several major oil companies, including BP, Exxon Mobil (XOM), and Chevron Corp. (CVX), were lambasted during a U.S. congressional hearing for their apparent safety shortcomings. Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.) said the spill-response plans of the companies were impressive on paper, but described as "cookie cutter" and factually flawed. Four of the company's plans included mention of protecting walruses, although "there are no walruses in the Gulf of Mexico," Waxman said. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R., Fla.) called on Lamar McKay, the president of BP's North American operations, to resign, while executives from the other oil majors sought to distance themselves from BP by saying their companies wouldn't have encountered the same problems. Later Tuesday, President Barack Obama will address the nation from the Oval Office, outlining his plans for the cleanup, compensating victims, getting tough on the offshore oil industry and enacting policies to reduce the country's oil dependence. Obama will meet with top BP executives on Wednesday, and BP CEO Tony Hayward will testify at a hearing in Washington on Thursday. The criticisms against BP intensified as the company failed in its various attempts to stop the leak, and as the oil spill pollutes an increasingly wide area of the Gulf Coast. Despite the containment system it has employed, significant amounts of oil continue to gush into the Gulf, as shown by live video feeds from the well site situated a mile beneath the water's surface. Early this week, BP had planned to ramp up the use of another ship, the Q4000, in an effort to increase its capture rate to between 20,000 and 28,000 barrels a day. The vessel has been retrofitted to burn off about 5,000 to 10,000 barrels of oil a day. There was no word Tuesday on whether BP's plans for the Q4000 have come to fruition. Eventually, the Discoverer Enterprise and Q4000 will be disconnected from the well and a system with more capacity and one that can withstand harsher weather, like high winds and strong currents, will be put in place. BP plans to implement enhancements to the system that the company says would increase collection capacity to more than 50,000 barrels a day by the end of June. By mid-July, BP hopes to have in place the capacity to collect 80,000 barrels a day, the company outlined in a plan given to the government. -By Susan Daker, Dow Jones Newswires, 713-547-9208; [email protected] (Cassandra Sweet and Siobhan Hughes contributed to this article.) (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 15, 2010 18:41 ET (22:41 GMT)