Workers are seen clearing the beach as oil residue washes up on Pensacola Beach today. (Getty Images)
U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen on Monday said BP collected 11,000 barrels of oil from a rupture well in the Gulf in the last 24 hours and is approaching collecting 15,000 barrels.
The new estimate is up from 6,000 barrels collected daily by BP from a containment cap it placed on the mile-deep well. There is an estimated 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day gushing from the well daily, or about 500,000 to 800,000 gallons.
BP’s latest efforts follow a string of failed attempts to plug the well. The company and government have stressed that a final solution to the leak won’t come until August, when relief wells the company is drilling will be completed.
The number comes as the federal government said its response to the disaster will stretch until the fall.
U.S. President Barack Obama traveled to Louisiana on Friday to survey the disaster and the impact it was having on local economies. Obama has faced criticism for imposing a six-month moratorium on exploratory, deep-water drilling in the Gulf amid concerns it would further imperil a region already reeling from commercial fishing restrictions and lost tourism caused by the disaster.
He told residents there that he wanted to ensure deepwater-drilling could be done safely and give time for a presidential commission he formed to investigate the causes of the disaster and suggest potential regulatory changes.
Eleven men were killed on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig when it caught fire April 20. Obama invited the families of the men to the White House for a meeting on Thursday.