BP increases amount of leaked Gulf oil it captures

HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP <:BP.LO:>Plc said on Thursday its containment cap system at the Gulf of Mexico oil leak collected 15,800 barrels (660,000 gallons/2,500,000 liters) of oil on Wednesday, showing a small increase in the capture rate.

The cap system collected 15,010 barrels in the previous 24-hour period, BP said. The cumulative total since the system was installed last week reached 73,324 barrels (3,080,000 gallons/11,660,000 liters), according to BP figures.

"Operations were stable," BP said on Thursday.

British energy giant BP is working to nearly double its surface capacity to handle oil collected from the seabed.

Transocean Ltd's Discoverer Enterprise drillship, which is receiving the oil through a pipe connected to the top of the containment cap at the wellhead, can process up to 18,000 barrels a day of oil.

The company also said it is preparing a service rig used for BP's failed "top kill" attempt to smother the leak last month to receive and burn off 5,000 to 10,000 barrels of oil. The oil would have to be burned off because that rig has no storage capacity, according to BP.

U.S. government scientists have estimated the leak to range from 12,000 barrels (504,000 gallons/1.9 million liters) to 19,000 barrels (798,000 gallons/3 million liters) a day, with one estimate as high as 25,000 (1.05 million gallons/3.97 million liters) barrels a day. That team is revisiting its data to reach a more solid estimate of the flow rate.

The containment cap, placed atop the gushing well pipe a mile below the ocean surface, is funneling some of the escaping oil and gas from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to the surface to be collected in ships and taken away. An undetermined amount of oil continues to escape from the cap into the ocean.

The system is BP's most successful effort so far to corral the leak, which began after Transocean's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and sank in April, killing 11 workers.

(Editing by Will Dunham)