Gulf spill in Washington spotlight

VENICE, La./LONDON (Reuters) - Energy giant BP Plc was forging ahead with efforts to capture oil gushing from its stricken Gulf of Mexico well as the spill remained high on Washington's radar screen, with several congressional hearings set for Wednesday.

The political drama in Washington and the containment drive in the Gulf will be keenly watched by investors the day after BP's share price slid 5 percent in London, extending recent losses that have cleaved about a third of its value.

The disaster remains at the top of U.S. President Barack Obama's crowded domestic agenda, a point underscored by his strong comments and his plans to head back to the Gulf next week to inspect operations to grapple with the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

The slick has fouled wildlife refuges in Louisiana and barrier islands in Mississippi and Alabama and also sent tar balls ashore on beaches in Florida. One-third of the Gulf's federal waters remains closed to fishing and the toll of dead and injured birds and marine animals is climbing.

In Washington on Wednesday morning, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will testify at a Senate hearing on safety issues in off-shore oil development, a day after his department issued stronger safety requirements that companies must meet to drill in waters less than 500 feet/152 meters deep.

On the corporate front, BP Plc shareholders would prefer to sacrifice the company's Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg rather than Chief Executive Tony Hayward over the ongoing crisis, the Times reported in its Wednesday edition.

Citing an unidentified person close to the British company, the Times said shareholders had more confidence in Hayward's ability to supervise BP's response to the crisis than Svanberg, who has been largely invisible.

"The mood within the company and among shareholders is clear -- they are supportive of Tony, who they feel has done his best in a very bad situation, but they are unimpressed by Svanberg," the Times reported the person as saying.

A BP spokesman dismissed the claims former Ericsson boss Svanberg, who took over the role of chairman in January, would consider stepping down.

RISING ANGER

All of this is taking place against the backdrop of rising public anger and an unfolding ecological catastrophe.

U.S. weather forecasters gave their first confirmation on Tuesday that some of the oil leaking from BP's well has lingered beneath the surface rather than rising to the top. Undersea oil depletes the water's oxygen content and threatens marine life like mussels, clams, crabs, eels and shrimp.

It was the first government confirmation of undersea oil near BP's blown-out well a mile beneath the ocean. Previously, both NOAA and BP have played down the possibility of undersea plumes.

Scientists involved in the studies will testify before a House of Representatives Energy and Commerce subcommittee panel that is probing the spill -- one of the several being held on Wednesday's busy day of hearings.

Meanwhile, BP will be striving to contain more of the oil spewing from the ocean floor.

BP said on Tuesday it had collected 14,800 barrels of oil from the leaking well on Monday, 33 percent more than the amount collected on Sunday and the highest capture rate since it installed a new system last week to contain the spill.

The company later said it collected 7,850 barrels of oil in the 12-hour stretch ended at noon CDT (1700 GMT) on Tuesday. That brought the total collected since the cap was installed to 51,364 barrels.

But the ultimate solution to the leak lies in the drilling of a relief well and that won't be completed before August, meaning there could be a long hot summer of public discontent ahead.

BP faces a criminal investigation and lawsuits over the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers and triggered the spill.

The company has already spent more than $1 billion on the clean-up.

(Additional reporting by JoAnne Allen in Washington; Writing by Ed Stoddard; editing by Doina Chiacu.)