UPDATE: US Oilspill Commission Sets First Meeting, Recovery Efforts Continue

4th Jul 2010 00:27

(Adds updated oil-collection figures from BP.) By Anna Raff Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES A U.S. presidential commission formed to evaluate the causes of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill has set its first public meeting, as oil-containment efforts ramp up following last week's turbulent weather. The commission will "hear directly from the people of the Gulf Coast whose lives and livelihoods have been so profoundly affected" by the uncontrolled flow of crude-oil from a BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) well, according to a statement. The co-chairmen of the commission are Bob Graham, a former U.S. Senator and former governor of Florida, and William Reilly, a former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. "We will reach out to the public, affected parties, and technical experts to make an independent determination of what went wrong and to develop recommendations to avoid a disaster of this magnitude from happening again," Graham and Reilly said in the statement. The meeting is scheduled to take place July 12-13 in New Orleans. The spill, which is in its 75th day and now ranks among the largest in U.S. history, began after an April 20 blast aboard Transocean Ltd.'s (RIG, RIGN.VX) Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which BP had leased for its Macondo well. The White House issued a six-month moratorium on offshore drilling to give the commission time to come up with new safety recommendations. The moratorium is being challenged in the courts. The spill has hurt the region's fishing and tourism industries. It has wiped billions from BP's market value and catalyzed opposition to offshore drilling for hydrocarbons. BP said Sunday that it continued to recover oil at a steady pace, collecting 25,195 barrels on Saturday. This brings the total amount of oil collected since the spill to about 607,400 barrels, the London oil giant said in an operational update on its website. BP said it collected 12,465 barrels during the first half of Sunday. The capacity to capture oil is set to be boosted by a third containment vessel, which is expected to be operational by mid-week. In addition, tests are being run on a Taiwainese ship that has been retrofitted into the world's largest skimming vessel. Scientists estimate that oil is flowing from the broken well at a rate of 35,000-60,000 barrels a day. It's likely that more than 2 million barrels of oil has spewed into the Gulf so far, damaging the region's fragile ecosystem and marring hundreds of miles of coastline. Oil-containment and clean-up efforts were disrupted last week by a storm surge in the wake of Hurricane Alex, which made landfall west of the oil spill. Heavy winds and waves blew sand across beaches, burying oil and a barrier known as boom. Reports of damaged and stranded boom were received from several Louisiana parishes, and repairs are underway, the unified command organizing the response effort said in a press release. U.S. government oceanographers said Saturday that the risk of oil from the spill washing up on Florida's beaches and shores remained low under current ocean and wind conditions. The oil hasn't approached the so-called loop current, an underwater movement in the Gulf that could carry oil around the southern part of Florida, Debbie Payton, an oceanographer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was quoted as saying in a press release. -By Anna Raff, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2150 ; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 04, 2010 19:27 ET (23:27 GMT)