The U.S. Coast Guard gave BP Plc 48 hours to find more capacity to contain its leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico after scientists and researchers doubled their estimates of the spill’s size.

BP’s efforts don’t ‘provide the needed collection capacity consistent with the revised flow estimates,’ said Rear Admiral James A. Watson, the federal on-scene coordinator, in a letter dated June 11. It was sent to Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer for exploration and production, and was released today.

BP plans to almost triple its capacity to capture oil from its leaking well to as much as 50,000 barrels a day by mid-July, the Coast Guard said yesterday. The plan calls for two pairs of production ships and shuttle tankers to replace a cluster of vessels at the site, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the government’s national incident commander for the spill, said yesterday at a press conference in Washington.

The well was releasing between 20,000 barrels and 40,000 barrels a day, twice as much as previously estimated, before BP cut away a kinked pipe on June 3, U.S. government scientists and independent researchers reported June 10. They are still studying the current leak rate. BP recovered […]