BP announced today that the pipe it forced into the leaking riser at the site of the Deepwater Horizon drilling accident is collecting around 2,000 barrels of oil a day, this crude is passed up to the surface for storage.

Estimates of oil leakage resulting from the accident are about 5,000 barrels per day, meaning the new system should be cutting the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico by around 40%. Gas recovered via the system is being burned off (picture, right).

Rear Admiral Landry yesterday said that weather should allow controlled burns to continue burning off crude at the surface, while dispersants continue to be applied both at the surface and on the ocean floor near the leaks.

Meanwhile, Jane Lubchenco, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has criticised reports that there are “enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico”. She said some of these media reports were “misleading, premature and, in some cases, inaccurate” (UPI). (On a similar note, AP has a nice story about the model that NOAA is using to predict where all the oil is.)

University of South Florida researchers warned today that oil from the spill seems to be entering the Gulf’s Loop Current. This means it could be carried to the Florida Keys by 26 May, they say.

Image: still from US Navy video by Petty Officer 1st Class David G. Crawford.