Adm. Allen declares war on oil in the Gulf

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen declared a war on the gusher over the weekend as BP continued its attempts to curb the spill. Meanwhile, a device put in place on Friday on top of the blown-out well is working to collect 10,000 barrels of oil per day. While that’s still only a portion of the oil spewing from the well, BP head Tony Hayward says the cap could eventually capture 90 percent of the oil. However, the longterm effects are still daunting.

“BP is taking it a step at a time, because they want to collect as much as oil as they can without causing the system to fail,” said Peter Bommer, an oil engineer at Abraxas Petroleum Corporation in San Antonio, Tex.

Bommer explains how the containment cap works, and looks ahead at the uphill battles that BP may face in trying to capture 90 percent of the spill.