Sing Along: 11,000 Barrels of Oil...

.
June 07, 2010

11,000 barrels of oil collected so far, Coast Guard's Allen says

Posted: 10:57 AM ET

Add a comment [to the AC 360º blog]

On "AC360" tonight, five survivors of the BP oil rig explosion tell Anderson Cooper how they got out alive. Watch "AC360" tonight, live from the Gulf at 10 ET.

CNN Wire Staff

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the federal government's response manager for the oil disaster, said Monday that 11,000 barrels of oil had been collected from the broken well over the previous 24 hours.

He said roughly 120 linear miles of coastline in the Gulf of Mexico have been affected by the spill.

Allen was in Washington to brief President Obama and the Cabinet on the administration's ongoing response to the disaster.

Meanwhile, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce was set to open shop on the bayou, holding a hearing in Chalmette, Louisiana.


(CNN) -- It will take years to completely clean up the damage from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the federal government's response manager for the oil disaster, said Monday.

"Dealing with the oil spill on the surface is going to go on for a couple of months. After that it'll be taken care of," Allen said in response to a reporter's question at a White House briefing. "I agree with you, long-term issues of restoring the environment and the habitats and stuff will be years."

The total amount of crude being collected from the ruptured undersea well responsible for the disaster increased Sunday to roughly 466,000 gallons -- or 11,100 barrels -- according to estimates from BP and Allen.

On Saturday, BP indicated it had increased the amount of crude being funneled to the surface to roughly 441,000 gallons. The oil is being funneled from a containment cap installed on the well to a drilling ship on the ocean surface.

Federal authorities estimate that 798,000 gallons of crude have been gushing into the sea every day.

Since the containment cap was installed on Friday, the total number of gallons of oil being captured on a daily basis has nearly doubled, Allen said Monday.

BP "anticipates moving another craft" to the well site shortly in order to raise the capacity of oil that could be captured on a daily basis to roughly 840,000 gallons, or 20,000 barrels, he said.

"In the long run, [BP] is also looking at bringing larger production vessels in, create a more permanent connection that can be disconnected easily in case we have a hurricane or bad weather later on in the hurricane season," Allen noted. "And we'll continue to optimize the production out of the well to contain it."

Allen met with reporters shortly before briefing President Obama and the Cabinet on the administration's ongoing response to the spill.

"Adm. Allen will be giving what the military call a Commander's Briefing this morning from the White House," White House officials said. "He will chart out what resources have been amassed in the Gulf theater to fight the oncoming oil. These resources include Coast Guard troops and other personnel, National Guardsmen and women, boom, vessels, aircraft, command centers and shoreline cleanup teams."

Farther south, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce was set to open shop on the bayou, holding a hearing in Chalmette, Louisiana. The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a field hearing on "Local Impact of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill" near ground zero for the growing disaster.

Also Monday, Carol Browner, the president's assistant for energy and climate change, will host a video chat to answer questions from the public about the oil disaster. The chat can be viewed at WhiteHouse.gov or at the White House's Facebook page.

The expanding government response comes as the effects of the gusher are spreading along the Gulf Coast. Dead wildlife has now been reported in the region. Allen said Monday that roughly 120 linear miles of coastline in the Gulf have now been affected by the spill.

Full coverage of oil spill

Allen warned Sunday that while BP has made progress in its cleanup efforts, it remains too early to call the effort a success.

"We're making the right progress. (But) I don't think anyone should be pleased as long as there's oil in the water," Allen said on CNN's "State of the Union."

The oil "is an insidious enemy," Allen said. "It's attacking all of our shores, it's holding the Gulf hostage, basically."

In an appearance on ABC's "This Week," Allen described the current state of the spill as a series of pools, ranging from 20-100 yards to several miles in length.

"The spill has disaggregated over a 200-mile radius around the wellbore. It's not a monolithic spill. It is literally hundreds and thousands of smaller spills," he said.

Even as the administration has tried to distance itself from BP in recent days -- with the Justice Department launching both criminal and civil investigations into the spill -- it has not been enough to temper the frustration seething among residents along the coastline.

Florida Sen. George LeMieux, a Republican, demanded that BP donate $1 billion for a cleanup fund for the five Gulf states and said that Obama "needs to push them to do that."

"I want to see this president more engaged here on the ground, working through problems," LeMieux said.

On "State of the Union," Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said his state was "as ready as we can be," as the currents moved the oil eastward.

In addition to a declaration of a state of disaster, Florida has about 250,000 feet of boom spread around the panhandle and has another 250,000 feet available, Crist said.

Florida is also pushing BP to respond to claims made by business owners who are losing business and facing crisis because of the spill.

"In the short term, we want these claims to be responded to more quickly," Crist said. "These people need help, and we need to be there to try to make them as whole as we can during this very difficult process."

Allen said Monday that the government would "like [BP] to get better" at processing damage claims now being filed with the company. In Alabama, he noted, National Guardsmen are now helping individuals to file claims.

Tony Kennon, the mayor of Orange Beach, Alabama, confronted Fryar at a weekend news conference about prompt action not being taken when reports surfaced that tar balls were washing ashore. Visibly upset, Kennon said local officials had been asking to meet with BP officials for over a month, but their requests went unanswered.

"If you sensed our frustration, you would have been here a lot sooner," Kennon told Fryar. "People in Orange Beach are starving to death now because they can't get out to catch the fish."

Allen said Sunday the Alabama incident the mayor referred to was the result of a mechanical failure where a boom became disconnected before a skimmer arrived to prevent the oil from reaching the shore.

Overall, however, Allen said the federal government is in charge of making sure BP is carrying out its cleanup responsibilities.

In an effort to respond faster, Coast Guard field commanders don't need approval to get cleanup equipment out, Allen said.

"If there's oil out there, they need to call in skimming equipment," he said. "We don't want them to go two or three levels up to higher authority to be able to do that. I've given direct orders to all my field commanders out there that when they see oil and they have the capability to respond and they're to do it."

Not all Gulf Coast states were suffering equally from the spill.

In Mississippi, barely any oil had appeared on the shores, but the state's tourist industry was nonetheless feeling the pinch.

"The truth is we've had virtually no oil," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told "Fox News Sunday." "If you were on the Mississippi Gulf Coast anytime in the last 48 days, you didn't see any oil at all."

The biggest effect the state has felt, Barbour said, resulted from media reports saying that the entire Gulf Coast was affected.

Mississippi's "tourist season has been hurt by misperceptions of what's going on down here," he said.