BP spill hits a somber record as Gulf's biggest

As BP's runaway well became the world's biggest offshore spill Thursday, according to the most pessimistic government estimates, rough seas and winds from Tropical Storm Alex continued to ground skimming and booming operations from the Mississippi Delta to Florida's Panhandle, U.S. Coast Guard officials said.

After standing idle most of Wednesday because of inclement weather, the armada of ships skimming oil, laying boom, conducting controlled burns and transporting equipment likely would remain idle through Friday, said U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Charles Diorio.

"Operations have been severely impacted by weather in the Gulf," he said. "The weather today unfortunately looks much the same as yesterday."

Diorio said skimming would not resume until waves fell below four feet high — possibly not until Saturday, according to forecasts.

While the storm dissipated over Mexico and grounded response efforts along the coasts, it did not cause a suspension of long-term operations at the site of the Deepwater Horizon well head, about 130 miles southeast of New Orleans, where large drilling and production ships are capturing oil from the ruptured pipe, and drilling relief wells that offer the best chance to seal the undersea gusher.

The storm has delayed, however, the launch of a new system that could double the amount of oil captured daily from the ruptured well to about 2.2 million gallons a day.

Projections now estimate that the broken well is gushing 1.4 million gallons to 2.7 million gallons per day.

Since the April 20 explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig — killing 11 workers and setting off the spill — the high end of that estimate would amount to 199 million gallons Thursday, while the low estimate would be 107.3 million gallons.

Subtract the amount of oil that BP and federal officials have reported siphoned, burned and skimmed and the total amount of oil in the Gulf as of Thursday was estimated at 140.6 million gallons.

That tops the estimated 140 million gallons spilled in 1979-80 from Mexico's Ixtoc 1 offshore well in the Gulf of Campeche.