Getting your player ready...
NEW ORLEANS — BP began slowly burning oil siphoned from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday as part of its plan to more than triple the amount of crude it can stop from reaching the sea, the company said.
The company said it had burned 52,500 gallons of oil by noon Wednesday using a specialized flare system. Once oil and gas siphoned from the well reaches a semi-submersible drilling rig on the surface of the gulf, it is mixed with compressed air, shot down a specialized boom and then ignited at sea. BP previously said the system could incinerate 210,000 to 420,000 gallons of oil daily once it’s fully operational.
