BP claims pipe capturing 20% of spill

ENERGY giant BP yesterday said it was capturing about a fifth of the estimated oil gushing from its ruptured undersea Gulf of Mexico well and hoped to try to fully stop the flow later this week.

But BP, whose shares rose more than 2% on news of the limited containment, still faced tough questions from the US government and public over the extent of the spill threatening economic and environmental calamity to the US Gulf Coast.

“We’re throwing absolutely everything at this,” BP chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, said. The spill could eclipse the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident off Alaska as the worst US ecological disaster.