BP, which leased the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded on April 20, has so far managed only to stem the flow of oil using a mile-long tube inserted into the ruptured pipe.

That tube -- which became operational on Sunday -- is suctioning up an average of about 2,000 barrels of oil a day to a waiting ship but significant amounts of oil are still seeping into the Gulf.

It will take at least two months for relief wells to be completed and hopes of stopping the flow are currently pinned on the "top kill" method, which aims to inject heavy drilling fluids into the well and then seal it with cement.

The operation was initially scheduled to take place on Sunday, but has been delayed because of the time needed to get the equipment in place using underwater robots, BP said.

"Our current forecast for when this operation will take place will be sometime in the early part of next week," said BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles.

"Our best estimate is probably Tuesday, but I will stress that these operations are quite complex and we won't start the operation until all the equipment is staged."

Suttles declined to say whether the delay was caused by concern about whether current estimates of the flow rate are radically off base.

"We've said since quite early on this that our best estimate was somewhere around 5,000 barrels per day, but with a wide range," he told reporters.

"As we do the design for top kill that same assessment is what we're designing that job off and that same assessment is what we're designing the application of dispersants off of as well."

Independent experts examining video of the ruptured pipe have estimated that the flow from the two leaks could be as high as 120,000 barrels per day.

A team of government and academic experts is currently working on developing an accurate and peer-reviewed estimate of the flow rate and total size of the spill, but officials would not say when that information would be released.

The firm is also considering combining the "top kill" operation with a "junk shot," where golf balls, rubber tire parts, plastic and other materials would be injected under pressure into a huge valve known as a blowout preventer to clog it up.

The "junk shot" could be risky as experts have warned that tinkering with the blowout preventer -- a huge 450-ton valve system that should have shut off the oil -- could see crude shoot out unchecked at up to 12 times the current rate.

earlier related report
Obama forms spill commission as oil mess spreads
Grand Isle, Louisiana (AFP) May 22, 2010 - President Barack Obama unveiled a commission Saturday to probe the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as the growing environmental catastrophe blackened Louisiana's fragile wetlands and beaches.

With the federal government facing accusations of lax supervision of lucrative offshore oil drilling, Obama vowed to hold Washington accountable and warned that the future of the industry hinges on assurances such a disaster "never happens again."

As frustration grew that the huge spill gushing from a ruptured well nearly a mile (1,500 meters) below the surface was still not capped more than a month into the disaster, Obama also hinted for the first time that a criminal investigation could be launched.

The president noted concerns about the "cozy relationship between oil and gas companies and agencies that regulate them" and said the "disaster was a breakdown of responsibility on the part of BP and perhaps others, including Transocean and Halliburton."

Obama gave the bipartisan presidential commission six months to report its findings on the "root causes" of the disaster and provide recommendations on how the oil industry can prevent and mitigate the impact of any future spills.

"If the laws on our books are inadequate to prevent such an oil spill, or if we didn't enforce those laws -- I want to know it," Obama said in his weekly radio address.

"I want to know what worked and what didn't work in our response to the disaster, and where oversight of the oil and gas industry broke down."

In an election year rife with anti-incumbent anger rattling lawmakers' hopes of hanging on to their seats, some have narrowed their sights on the spill and who is to blame. They have already held 10 congressional hearings over the past two weeks and are scheduled to hold five more next week and yet others in June.

"In addition to the companies that were drilling, it is important also to know what the administration approved," Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in statement, noting the Obama administration approved the Deepwater Horizon drilling site and the spill response plan.

"And hopefully in the course of the testimony, we'll be able to figure out what went wrong not only with the companies themselves, but with the oversight of the companies."

Some 1,150 vessels, over 24,900 personnel and more than two million feet of protective boom have been deployed so far by BP and federal, state and local agencies.

They have recovered over 9.73 million gallons of oily water so far. BP says it has already spent over 700 million dollars on the cleanup.

But for parts of the Gulf Coast's fragile ecosystem, it was all too little, too late.

A viscous blackish-orange slick sloshed ashore Grand Isle, Louisiana, forcing officials to close its popular tourist beach.

Volunteers armed with spades were locked in a desperate battle to scoop up the oil into plastic bags.

"It was dirty at 6:00 am. We cleaned it up. When we came back from lunch it just looked exactly the same," said Eric Thomson, 19, wearing a white safety helmet, black boots and dark glasses under the hot sun.

Susan Villiers, 52, stared with frustration at the empty waters as she walked along the dirty shore near her beachfront home.

"Everybody is angry because they want to see action," she told AFP. "They want to see boats deploying booms and nothing's happening."

Even at the lowest estimates, more than six million gallons of crude have soiled Gulf waters since the BP-operated rig sank spectacularly some 52 miles offshore on April 22, two days after an explosion that claimed 11 workers' lives.

Just how much oil is gushing from the rig's wreckage has been a major point of contention, with BP initially putting the figure at 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, a day.

Independent experts examining video of the ruptured pipe have estimated that the flow from the two leaks could be as high as 120,000 barrels per day.

BP is currently suctioning up an average of about 2,100 barrels of oil a day with a mile-long tube inserted into the ruptured pipe.

It will take at least two months for relief wells to be completed and hopes of stopping the flow are currently pinned on a "top kill" operation, which aims to inject heavy drilling fluids into the well and then seal it with cement.

BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said he expected the operation to take place early next week, possibly on Tuesday.

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