UPDATE: BP Outlines Plan To Capture All Leaking Oil By End June

14th Jun 2010 13:24

(Adds detail.) LONDON (Dow Jones)--BP PLC (BP) Sunday outlined new plans to the U.S. Coast Guard that will allow it to capture the estimated 40,000 barrels of oil a day leaking from its Gulf of Mexico well by the end of June, according to a letter from the company seen by Dow Jones Newswires Monday. However, the company acknowledged numerous challenges to its plan and offered no guarantee of success. In the even of a hurricane, containment operations would have to be completely suspended, BP wrote in a letter addressed to Coast Guard Rear Admiral James Watson. BP is already capturing around 15,000 barrels a day of oil from the leaking well through a pipe connected to the Discoverer Enterprise. A second vessel, the Q4000, will connect to the well Monday and could increase that rate to 20,000 to 28,000 barrels a day, BP said. "The Q4000 should be ramping up to full rate on Tuesday," BP said. A third vessel, either the Helix Producer or the Toisa Pisces, will connect to the kill line on the blowout preventer atop the well head, raising the capacity of the system to between 40,000 barrels a day and 53,000 barrels a day by the end of June. A fourth vessel is planned to connect to the well head by mid-July, building additional redundancy into the system, BP said. These measures would also allow faster resumption of the containment operations following a hurricane interruption, BP said. The large number of vessels operating on the water above the leaking well raises the danger of an accident, BP said. "Several hundred people are working in confined space with live hydrocarbons on up to four vessels. This is significantly beyond both BP and industry practice," it said. The drive to capture more oil from the well must not be allowed to compromise safety, BP said. BP also warned that implementation of some of the above measures may temporarily decrease the amount of oil captured. The U.S. Coastguard gave the company 48 hours on Friday to come up with a better plan that will capture more oil. Company website: http://www.bp.com -By James Herron, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9317; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 14, 2010 08:24 ET (12:24 GMT)