BP continues oil collection despite rough seas

HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP <:BP.LO:>Plc kept oil-capture and relief-well drilling operations going at its Gulf of Mexico deep-sea leak on Wednesday despite rough seas and high winds spawned by Hurricane Alex.

U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, overseeing the spill response for the government, told reporters that waves at the leak site reached seven feet and winds gusted to 25 miles per hour (40 km per hour).

Coast Guard Rear Admiral Paul Zukunft added that rigs drilling two relief wells -- intended to intersect and then finally plug the ruptured deep-sea well -- routinely operate in seas that reach 10 to 15 feet.

The weather conditions forced the halting of skimming, spraying dispersant chemicals and controlled burns of oil on the ocean surface, the Coast Guard said. The sturdier vessels collecting and burning oil at the spill site were operating normally, Allen said.

Alex, with winds of 85 mph, was headed for the northeastern Mexico and South Texas coasts late on Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center. That is far from the oil spill site off the coast of Louisiana.

Allen has said that the oil-capture and relief well drilling operations would shut down if gale-force winds hit 46 miles per hour at the spill site.

Allen said on Wednesday that one of the relief wells was within 16 feet of the side of the blown-out well. Allen has said BP is slowly drilling down to reach the bottom of the well 13,000 feet below the seabed.

'THE OPTIMAL POINT'

"They will continue to do that over the next several weeks as they get it to the optimal point where they can turn and intercept the wellhead," Allen said.

BP's two oil-siphoning systems can capture up to 28,000 barrels (1.18 million gallons/4.45 million liters) a day.

One system channels oil from a containment cap atop the well's failed blowout preventer equipment through a fixed pipe to a drill ship at the ocean surface. The other siphons oil from the blowout preventer through a hose and pipe to a rig.

BP said the current oil-capture systems collected or burned off 25,220 barrels of oil on Tuesday.

An undetermined amount of oil continues to gush into the ocean even with BP's siphoning efforts. The U.S. government estimates that the leak is spewing up to 60,000 barrels (2.5 million gallons/9.5 million liters) a day.

BP had intended to add a third vessel by Wednesday to the oil-collection efforts and increase overall capacity to 53,000 barrels but has delayed doing so until next week because of the rough seas, Allen said.

Zukunft said the vessel is already at the spill site and is slated to be hooked up July 7. Zukunft also said waves at the site need to be less than 4 feet to allow for a successful hookup, and "routine squall-like" weather developing in the Gulf could lead to further delay.

(Additional reporting by Anna Driver in Houston, editing by Will Dunham)

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