HARRY WEBER and RAY HENRY
Associated Press Writers
NEW ORLEANS – As officials reported a gradual increase in the amount of oil being captured from the spewing wellhead at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, BP PLC said Monday that it plans next month to replace the cap collecting the crude with a slightly bigger device.
The newer cap will “provide a better, tighter fit” than the current one collecting roughly one-third to three-fourths of the oil gushing daily from the sea floor, company spokesman Robert Wine told The Associated Press. But it will also allow the oil now being collected to again spew out into the Gulf during the changeover.
The oil began gushing after a BP oil rig explosion April 20 and recently increased in volume after officials sheared off the top of the damaged outflow pipe as part of the latest containment effort. BP believes the bigger cap will fit over more of the pipe than the current cap.