Gulf oil spill: Will Obama regret his '90 percent' promise?

The president's statement came only a few days after BP had to backtrack on executive Doug Suttles's comment that the flow at the Macondo well would close to "a trickle" soon. Moreover, they've had to defend early decisions not to calculate the flow rate accurately – saying it wasn't important.

New estimates suggest the flow rate could be 60,000 barrels a day – 12 times more than the estimate BP was using. Because of that false early estimate, BP vastly underestimated the amount of capacity it needed to collect the oil leaking from the well. The result is that the one tanker on site is collecting only 18,000 barrels a day, and a second tanker, which is en route, will not arrive until mid-July.

BP's '90 percent' plan

That leaves the company scrambling to come up with interim solution. The president's "up to 90 percent" statement jibes with a BP's interim plan, which was included in a letter on Sunday. Starting this week, BP says it will attach a surface pipe to one of the lines used to pump in drilling mud during the failed "top kill" operation. But now, the line would be used to siphon oil rather than pump in drilling mud.

BP plans to repeat the procedure later in the month, hooking up another pipe to the other line used to pump in mud during "top kill." These two lines could collect an additional 40,000 to 53,000 barrels of oil a day, BP says.

But BP said that plan faces the same kind of difficulties that have plagued other attempts to kill the Deepwater Horizon well. They cautioned, for instance, that junk from the "junk shot" could clog the line or the lines – which are not designed for continuous use – could deteriorate.

This week also highlighted other unforeseeable problems. BP had to temporarily suspend pumping operations Tuesday after a lightning strike sparked a fire on board one the collection ship, the Discoverer Enterprise. No one was injured.

Related:

• Obama speech on BP oil spill a call to action for clean energy
• Gulf oil spill: BP worried about its own bid to capture more oil
• Oval Office speech: Obama's 'take charge' moment in Gulf oil spill

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