Oil from Gulf gusher captured by tube rises to 5,000 barrels a day: BP

HOUSTON, May 20 (Xinhua) -- British oil company BP said Thursday a mile-long tube inserted into a undersea gusher over the weekend was now siphoning 5,000 barrels of oil a day.

"The oil plume escaping from the riser pipe has visibly declined today," BP spokesman Mark Proegler said after BP announced that the tube was capturing 5,000 barrels, previously estimated as the total gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

BP has put the leak at 5,000 barrels a day, but scientists fear the amount of escaping oil could be significantly more.

A video provided by BP showed a black plume of crude oil still billowing out into the deep waters in spite of BP's increased containment.

Proegler admitted the tube was not siphoning all the oil leak. "We're not claiming that we stopped it -- although that is our final objective. We're saying that this is what we're capturing now," he said.

The "Deepwater Horizon" drilling rig, leased by BP, exploded and sank some 52 km off Venice, Louisiana, late last month, killing 11 workers and unleashing a massive oil spill.

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