By Leigh Coleman and Guy Faulconbridge
OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss./TORONTO (Reuters) - Thick oil from BP Plc's Gulf of Mexico spill washed ashore in Mississippi for the first time on Sunday while Russia's president suggested a special levy on oil companies to bankroll a fund to help clean up environmental disasters like this one.
BP and the U.S. Coast Guard kept a close watch on tropical storm Alex as it moved in the southwestern gulf.
Alex, the first named storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, had sustained winds of 45 mph and was about 60 miles west-southwest of Campeche, Mexico. The system was moving west-northwest at 7 mph. Forecasters from the U.S. National Hurricane Center say Alex could become a hurricane in the next 48 hours.
They predict Alex will make landfall as a hurricane on Wednesday between Brownsville, Texas, and Tuxpan de Rodriguez Cano in Mexico, sparing BP's oil collection efforts at its ruptured deep-sea well.
After another rocky week last week, investors will have their eyes on shares of BP, which have been savaged since the oil spill started on April 20. BP's stock dropped another 6 percent to a 14-year low on Friday.
The oil spill, which began on April 20, has caused an economic and environmental disaster along the U.S. Gulf Coast, threatening fisheries, tourism and wildlife.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who heads the world's biggest energy producer, made a proposal for a global pollution fund at the Group of 20 summit in Toronto. He said G20 leaders had asked experts to work on the idea.
"One of the ideas, which still needs discussion, is for dues from major international companies which produce oil to be placed into a special consolidated fund or, and perhaps together with that, for the insurance of such risks paid for by those corresponding dues," Medvedev told reporters.
Louisiana's fragile wetlands have been hardest hit by the oil but Mississippi had escaped damage until Sunday, although some oil had tainted its barrier islands. Oil has also come ashore in Alabama and Florida's Gulf coast.
Gluey gobs of brown oil and a rainbow oil sheen sloshed onto tourist beaches at Ocean Springs, Mississippi, about 10 miles east of Biloxi, and at a beach used by fisherman that is close to an inland marsh.
'LIFE AS I KNOW IT IS OVER'
Mississippi state officials and the U.S. Coast Guard, who said they expect more oil to arrive, were waiting on BP contractors to start cleaning up.
"Life as I know it is over. What are we going to do if nobody cares to act fast enough?" asked Mike Hollings, a local resident who cried as he stared at the oil on the beach.
Shell Oil shut subsea production at two platforms and BP evacuated some personnel from three Gulf of Mexico platforms due to the threat of Alex, the companies said. All five platforms are in deepwater areas of the Gulf, far offshore and on the northern edge of some forecasters' projected tracks for Alex.
The U.S. government estimates that up to 60,000 barrels of oil (2.5 million gallons/9.5 million liters) per day are spewing from BP's damaged well on the seabed about a mile below the surface.
While awaiting the completion of the relief wells to finally plug the leak, BP has been using two oil collection systems to prevent some of the oil from its ruptured well from spewing into the sea.
BP said on Sunday its crews had collected or burned off 22,750 barrels of oil on Saturday.
Equipment going to the leak site this week could raise daily collection to 53,000 barrels, officials say, and a review is scheduled of a system that may boost it to 80,000 barrels.
The costs to BP include, but are not limited to, a $20 billion compensation fund it set up under U.S. pressure. BP said it has paid out $2.35 billion so far in clean-up and compensation costs.
(Additional reporting by Adrian Virgen in Campeche, Mexico, Ernest Scheyder in Grande Isle, Bruce Nichols in Houston, Sarah Young in London and Caren Bohan in Toronto; Writing by Jerry Norton; Editing by Will Dunham and Cynthia Osterman)
