How BP (NYSE:BP) Would Respond to Storm

The first named tropical storm, Tropical Storm Alex, could disrupt the cleanup efforts of BP (NYSE:BP) in the Gulf of Mexico if it starts to move in that direction.

It isn't clear that the storm will hit the spill area, but if it did, it could arrive in the Gulf of Mexico in the early part of the week. Preparations are being made for that scenario if it happens.

For the Discoverer Enterprise, the first system put in place to capture oil, they would have to be disconnected about 114 hours before the heavy winds hit, while the smaller Helix Q4000 vessel would be removed 56 hours before the storm came.

The most negative aspect of the storm if it does gravitate towards the spill would be the delaying of the arrival of Helix Producer, a vessel which would be able to withstand much harsher weather conditions.

Once the additional vessel is in place and a third system operating, an estimated 53,000 barrels of oil could be captured on a daily basis, which, depending on the actual amount of oil flowing into the Gulf, could capture the bulk of it.

BP (NYSE:BP) Captures Most Oil Since Leak Began

Wednesday was a significant milestone for BP (NYSE:BP) in its ongoing battle to minimize the amount of oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, as they had their best day of capturing oil, reaching 18,600 barrels, almost 80 percent over the amount of oil captured the day before.

Much of that is due to the newest vessel added to the effort, the Q4000, which was able to capture 21 percent of all the oil on Wednesday, which was burned off. The rest was stored on the Discoverer Enterprise, the ship which has been used to process the oil captured since the cap was successfully put in place.

Next week BP has a goal of capturing 28,000 barrels a day, and as high as 53,000 barrels a day by the end of June.

Government scientists have been all over the map with their estimates of how much oil is leaking into the Gulf, but we should find out if the high end of their estimate - which is 60,000 barrels a day - is accurate when BP has the capacity to collect 53,000 barrels a day.

Fire on BP (NYSE:BP) Oil Processing Vessel

Earlier today BP (NYSE:BP) had to stop capturing and processing oil as a fire broke out on the Discoverer Enterprise, the oil tanker being used to collect the oil on a daily basis since the cap was placed on the oil well.

There was reportedly no permanent damage to the BP vessel, and the oil processing stoppage was only temporary.

Conjecture is the fire probably started as a result of the ship being hit by lighting, which caused the stoppage in oil recovery at about 10:30 AM EDT.

Another ship in the area, Q4000, may begin operations for capturing oil in the area today, which would add approximately 50 percent more capacity to capturing the oil, reaching up to 28,000 barrels a day.

With no one really sure as to how much oil is escaping the oil well, it seems BP is taking a incremental strategy to attack the problem, although if they need to, they're ready to capture up to 50,000 barrels of oil if there is that much leaking into the Gulf.