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Federal authorities have ordered BP to get more aggressive with its plans to recover thousands of barrels of oil spewing from a broken well into the Gulf of Mexico, according to a letter made public Saturday.

In the letter, Rear Adm. James Watson, the government's on-scene incident manager, gave BP 48 hours to identify and expedite other ways to contain oil, given new estimates that doubled the amount of crude gushing out every day.

"It is clear that additional capacity is urgently needed," Watson said in the letter Friday to Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer.

"I am concerned that your current plans do not provide for maximum mobilization of resources to provide the needed collection capacity consistent with revised flow rates," Watson said. "I am also concerned that your plan does not go far enough to mobilize redundant resources in the event of an equipment failure with one of the vessels or some other unforeseen problem."

BP spokesman Mark Proegler said company officials are in the process of reviewing Watson's letter.

"We will be responding directly to him regarding containment plans and will work directly with the Coast Guard to keep the public informed of any changes to the process," Proegler said in a statement.

"We're looking at everything we have in place and we're looking to see if there's anything more we can do, and we will respond by tomorrow night," he said.

The government asked BP to lay out plans for additional and contingency recovery methods in a letter sent Tuesday. BP responded Wednesday by describing a three-element plan that included the current container cap, a choke line to pump additional oil to the surface and a kill line intended to capture oil left in excess after the first two methods.

The kill line, said Suttles in a letter to Watson, would not be operational until mid-July, a date that was unacceptable to the government.

"You indicate that some of the systems you have planned to deploy may take a month or more to bring online," Watson said. "Recognizing the complexity of this challenge, every effort must be expended to speed up the process."

"We're looking at everything we have in place and we're looking to see if there's anything more we can do, and we will respond by tomorrow night," he said.

The government asked BP to lay out plans for additional and contingency recovery methods in a letter sent Tuesday. BP responded Wednesday by describing a three-element plan that included the current container cap, a choke line to pump additional oil to the surface and a kill line intended to capture oil left in excess after the first two methods.

The kill line, said Suttles in a letter to Watson, would not be operational until mid-July, a date that was unacceptable to the government.

"You indicate that some of the systems you have planned to deploy may take a month or more to bring online," Watson said. "Recognizing the complexity of this challenge, every effort must be expended to speed up the process."

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Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
signing off