Strong winds associated with storm system Alex hampered containment and clean-up efforts, but the massive vessel could exponentially boost oil skimming from the leak that may have seen over 150 million gallons gush into the Gulf.

An estimated 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil per day has been released out of the ruptured well since the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sank on April 22, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the coast of Louisiana.

A containment system has captured about 557,000 barrels of oil, but rough seas delayed the deployment of a third vessel that is set to increase capacity from 25,000 barrels to 53,000 barrels a day.

That means an estimated 1.9 to 3.6 million barrels -- or 79.5 to 153 million gallons -- of oil has now gushed into the Gulf.

Using the high end of that estimate, the spill has now surpassed the 1979 Ixtoc blowout, which took nine months to cap and dumped an estimated 3.3 million barrels (140,000 million gallons) into the Gulf of Mexico.

It is topped only by the deliberate release of six to eight million barrels of crude by Iraqi troops who destroyed tankers and oil terminals and set wells ablaze in Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War.

And it will likely be mid-August at the earliest before the Gulf well is permanently capped by injecting mud and cement with the aid of relief wells.

The latest effort to clean up the spilling crude could be dramatically improved if the Taiwanese tanker dubbed "A Whale" can be safely deployed.

"It ingests oil and oily water and then separates out the oil and expels the water," BP spokesman Toby Odone told AFP.

The giant ship, which has cuts in its sides, is some 300 yards (275 meters) long and can suck up 21 million gallons of oily water a day.

Small skimming boats that have been patrolling the Gulf for the past 10 weeks have only collected 28.2 million gallons of oily water to date.

The tanker began initial skimming operations Friday, with crews testing whether it could safely handle and dispose of the oil, but it will take several days before a final deployment decision is made, Odone said.

Skimmers had been collecting about 12,000 barrels of oil a day before they were sent back to port after Alex whipped up waves, while about 8,000 barrels of oil was being burned off the surface.

Around 450 miles (725 kilometers) of US shorelines have now been oiled as crude spews into the sea at an alarming rate, 74 days into the worst environmental disaster in US history.

Admiral Thad Allen, the top official overseeing the spill response, said he hoped to have a third containment vessel, the Helix Producer, in place by Wednesday, boosting containment capacity from about 25,000 to 53,000 barrels of oil per day.

Once the Producer is working, officials will also have a better sense of just how much crude is leaking, "just by the visual evidence of how much oil is actually coming out around that cap," Allen said.

They will then have to decide if the existing system should stay in place, or if it would be best to undergo a risky procedure to replace the cap with another system capable of capturing up to 80,000 barrels of oil a day.

"The decision window associated with that would be sometime in the next, I would say, seven to 10 days," Allen said in a conference call Friday.

In addition to boosting capacity, the new system would also greatly reduce the amount of time oil could gush freely into the sea if crews had to evacuate due to a bad storm.

Meanwhile, Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson was headed to Pensacola, Florida to oversee coastal clean-up operations in the state, where tourist meccas Miami and the Florida Keys face fouled beaches.

Americans affected by the spill, from hotel owners facing cancellations to fishermen docked as crude invades fishing grounds, are filing claims against BP more than twice as fast as the British energy giant is paying them out, a study found Friday.

Analysis by Cannon Cochran Management Services Inc showed the total number of claims reported by BP jumped from 30,000 to more than 85,000 in June, and that by June 30 there were nearly 2.5 times as many new claims as there were checks issued to claimants.

earlier related report
Some of the world's worst oil spills
New Orleans, Louisiana (AFP) July 2, 2010 - The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is now the world's largest accidental discharge on the basis of the high end of the US government's daily flow estimates of 35,000 to 60,000 barrels (4,774 to 8,184 tonnes) a day.

While a containment system now capturing about 25,000 barrels (3,400 tonnes) a day has kept about 580,000 barrels (79,000 tonnes) of oil out of the sea, a permanent solution is not expected before mid August should relief wells be completed on schedule.

An estimated 1.9 to 3.6 million barrels (260,000 to 550,000 tonnes) has gushed into the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sank spectacularly on April 22.

By comparison, here are some of the largest and most notorious spills recorded worldwide, ranked by size:

- 1991: GULF WAR: Six to eight million barrels (818,000 to 1.1 million tonnes) is the estimated spillage when Iraqi forces set fire to Kuwaiti oil wells during the Gulf War.

- 1979: GULF OF MEXICO: Around 3.3 million barrels (455,000 tonnes) gush from the Ixtoc-1 well after an explosion on a rig operated by the Mexican state oil company Pemex. Capping the leak takes nine months.

- 1979: WEST INDIES: Two tankers -- the Atlantic Empress and Aegean Captain -- collide and catch fire during a tropical storm 16 kilometers (10 miles) off Tobago, spilling an estimated 2.1 million barrels (287,000 tonnes) of crude in the largest ship-sourced spill to date.

- 1994: SIBERIA: An estimated 733,000 to 2.1 million barrels (100,000 to 280,000 tonnes) spill from a ruptured pipeline in Russia's Komi Republic.

- 1991: ANGOLA: Loaded with 1.9 million barrels (260,000 tonnes) of Iranian crude, the ABT Summer explodes some 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) off the coast of Angola. The ship and a large slick burned for days, but the bulk of the oil did not reach land.

- 1978: FRANCE: 1.6 million barrels (230,000 tonnes) of crude wash up on 400 kilometers (250 miles) of coastline when the Liberian-registered supertanker Amoco Cadiz sinks off the western tip of Brittany.

- 1967: BRITAIN: 880,000 barrels (120,000 tonnes) of oil pollute the southern coast of England, and also French coasts, after the grounding of the Torrey Canyon supertanker.

- 1996: BRITAIN: Some 530,000 barrels (72,500 tonnes) of crude spill into the ocean when the Sea Empress went aground off Wales, polluting 200 miles of pristine coast -- much of it in a national park.

- 1989: UNITED STATES: The Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 271,000 barrels (37,000 tonnes) of oil and impacting 1,770 kilometers (1,100 miles) of coast in what had been the country's worst environmental disaster to date.

Sources:

- US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

http://www.incidentnews.gov/famous

- International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation

http://www.itopf.com/information-services/data-and-statistics

- AFP.

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