- NEW ORLEANS: BP's Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles says more oil may be leaking from a Gulf of Mexico drilling site than first estimated.
Speaking Thursday on NBC television, Suttles said the leak is more than the 1,000 barrels of day that was originally estimated last week after a deepwater rig exploded and burned off the coast of Louisiana.
He said it may be as much as a new estimate of 5,000 barrels a day that the government first provided late Wednesday.
Suttles said BP Plc and government scientists have to estimate the flow based on what reaches the surface because there is no way to measure the oil pouring out on the seabed.