May 20 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc is capturing 5,000 barrels of oil a day from its leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico. The company couldn’t say whether that was all of the spill from the well, which has been estimated to be leaking at that rate.

“That’s 5,000 barrels a day of oil that is not going onto the sea bed,” said Mark Salt, a spokesman in Houston for BP. “We are continuing to optimize the flow.”

The oil is flowing into a drillship on the surface via a mile-long tube inserted May 16. The ship also is flaring natural gas from the well at a rate of 15 million cubic feet a day, said Salt. BP, based in London, yesterday estimated the daily flow to the drill ship at 3,000 barrels a day and 14 million cubic feet of gas.
The company and federal agencies have been estimating the spill rate at 5,000 barrels a day since April 28. That figure is disputed by independent scientists, including Purdue University Associate Professor Steve Wereley, based on video of the leaking well. Wereley has estimated oil is leaking at more than 10 times that rate.

The well is off the coast of Louisiana, about 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) below the water’s surface. It began leaking after an April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which caused the rig to sink and resulted in the deaths of 11 workers.