Oil From BP's Leaking Well Reaches Texas, Lake Pontchartrain

6th Jul 2010 15:11

By Brian Baskin Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Oil from BP PLC's (BP, BP.LN) gushing underwater well in the Gulf of Mexico has reached Texas's coastline and Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain, as high seas have hindered efforts to contain the leak. The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed Monday that tar balls found on the Bolivar Peninsula at the mouth of Galveston Bay came from the spill, though the oil may have been carried to Texas by boat, rather than currents. The tar balls, no larger than ping-pong balls, were found Saturday in the surf off the Crystal Beach area of the peninsula, the Coast Guard said. Separately, the Coast Guard received reports of an oil sheen and tar balls in Lake Pontchartrain and the Rigolets, which connects the lake to the Gulf of Mexico. Responders placed 600-feet of boom at a choke point in the Rigolets and dispatched 19 skimming vessels to the areas where oil was seen. Lake Pontchartrain, which borders New Orleans, had previously avoided contamination as the spill had gradually moved east toward the Florida panhandle. BP's well has leaked oil into the Gulf since April, when the Deepwater Horizon rig caught fire and sank. The oil company is now siphoning off about 25,000 barrels a day onto two drilling rigs on the surface, but government and independent observers have estimated that as much as 60,000 barrels a day may be flowing out of the well. Plans to boost collection by another 20,000 barrels by installing a third rig above the well were put on hold last week by 12-foot waves kicked up by Hurricane Alex, which passed through the Gulf far to the southwest. The waves also forced oil-skimming boats to shore, and hindered testing of the A Whale, a giant, experimental vessel with the potential to dramatically increase the amount of oil skimmed from the surface. BP said Monday that the third rig is expected to begin collecting oil toward the end of the week. The company said Tuesday that it recovered 24,980 barrels of oil on Monday. Another storm may soon pose a threat to the spill response, however. The National Hurricane Center is tracking a system near the Yucatan Peninsula that has a 30% chance of forming into the second named storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season. -By Brian Baskin, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2453; [email protected] TALK BACK: We invite readers to send us comments on this or other financial news topics. Please email us at [email protected]. Readers should include their full names, work or home addresses and telephone numbers for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit and publish your comments along with your name; we reserve the right not to publish reader comments. (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 06, 2010 10:11 ET (14:11 GMT)