BP said today that its oil-capture systems at the massive Gulf of Mexico leak collected or burned off 23,290 barrels (3.7m litres) of crude yesterday.
The British energy company is using two different systems to capture some of the oil spewing into the ocean from the deep-sea offshore well that ruptured on April 20.
Its containment cap system, installed on June 3, collected 14,570 barrels yesterday, BP said. A second system, started up on June 16, burned off 8,720 barrels yesterday. The systems have a total capacity of 28,000 barrels a day, according to BP.
An undetermined amount of crude continues to gush into the sea despite BP's two collection systems.
The US government estimates that up to 60,000 barrels of oil are gushing from the ruptured well each day.
Overall, BP has collected 231,190 barrels of oil from the containment cap system that channels oil to Transocean Ltd's Discoverer Enterprise drillship a mile above (1.6km) at the water's surface, according to BP figures.
A drillship is a vessel equipped with a drilling rig that can stay in place for long periods of time while drilling, testing and completing offshore wells.
The second system siphons oil through a hose connected to a failed blowout preventer at the seabed to Helix Energy Solutions' Q4000 service rig. Unlike the drillship, that rig has no storage or processing capacity, so that collected oil must be burned off with a flare boom.
The Q4000 has burned off a total of 41,930 barrels of oil since it started up last week, according to BP figures.
BP aims to add another oil-capture system by the end of June to increase overall capacity to up to 53,000 barrels a day, and then make further changes to boost capacity to up to 80,000 barrels a day by mid-July, according to the company's latest plan submitted to the Coast Guard.
All the systems are intended to capture oil until one or both relief wells are drilled and permanently cap the leak. Those wells are expected to be finished in August.
BP has said that clean-up costs for the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster had climbed to $2 billion so far.
But investors, who drove down BP's share price more than 2% today, are more concerned about the final tally of cleaning up the spill. The company faces lawsuits, huge fines and damage claims that are expected to cost many billions more. BP agreed last week to set up a $20 billion compensation fund.
BP plans to raise cash from banks to ensure it has enough money on hand to pay for the clean-up, sources familiar with the matter said today. Banking sources said last week that it was seeking to arrange $7 billion from banks.
BP has said it will suspend dividend payments to its shareholders and increase the pace of asset sales to $10 billion this year to offset liabilities from the spill, which began after an explosion on an offshore oil rig on April 20 that killed 11 workers.
Reports of the fundraising came after BP's credit rating was cut by the three major credit rating agencies due to fears over the total cost of the oil spill - a move that could cause its borrowing costs to soar.
BP played down reports of the fundraising, but is coming under flak from all angles as the oil spill threatens its future.
