BP lowers oil leak capture rate

The amount of oil being siphoned out of a ruptured well gushing crude into the Gulf of Mexico has dropped more than half to 2,200 barrels in a single day, BP said yesterday.

The flow changes and is not constant, BP spokesman John Curry said in explaining the British energy giant's estimate that 92,400 gallons of oil had been diverted from the well on the sea floor in the 24-hour period that ended at midnight on Thursday.

BP had earlier reported siphoning out as much as 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of oil per day - the very same figure it has provided as its estimate of the total daily flow of crude from the leak - as it acknowledged for the first time that more oil may be spewing out of the well.

"As we've said all along, it's very hard to measure," Mr Curry said as pressure mounted on BP a month into the so-far unsuccessful operation to plug the leak that has spawned a huge oil slick threatening fragile coastlands and livelihoods.

"We're really more interested in putting it out, addressing the issue itself at the source."

The company, which operated the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded on April 20, is under fire over claims it has botched the month-long clean-up and hid the extent of the disaster.

Mr Curry insisted that the actual amount of oil spreading across the Gulf waters was less important than the response, after independent experts warned that at least 10 times more crude may be leaking than the amount estimated by BP and the US government.

"The response is not based upon the flow," he said.

Even at the lowest estimates, more than six million gallons of crude have flowed into the water since the disaster.