Containment capsule captures 10,000 oil barrels a day in Gulf of Mexico

June 8, 2010 According to BP's chief executive the equivalent to 10,000  of oil is being captured each day in the Gulf of Mexico by a containment cap. Around 12,000 to 19,000 barrels are leaking each day, implying that more than half of the oil being released is captured by the containment cap.

Tony Hayward expressed his company's intention of restoring the Gulf to its original state, after what has been described by many as one of the worst environmental disasters in the history of the US. "As we speak, the containment cap is producing around 10,000 barrels of oil a day to the surface." Hayward said. When asked about what amount of the leak the oil being captured represented, he claimed it was "the majority, probably the vast majority".

Hayward feels confident that almost all of the leaking oil will be captured in the following week. "We have a further containment system to implement in the course of this coming week which will be in place by next weekend so when those two are in place, we would very much hope to be containing the vast majority of the oil." he said.

According to CNN, the US federal government's response manager, Adm. Thad Allen, said it was too early to call the operation a success, while admitting that BP had made progress in the handling of the situation. "We're making the right progress. I don't think anyone should be pleased as long as there's oil in the water," he said.