Dr Martin Preston, a marine pollution expert at Liverpool University, said: "This is already a bad spill and has the potential to be much worse if the oil continues to escape. The great depth of the leaks make it a huge challenge to deal with.
"Some important and vulnerable habitats along the coastlines are at risk and it is inevitable some serious and potentially longterm damage may occur." Dr Preston said, in his opinion, chemical dispersants would be a better option than trying to burn the oil because of the dangers of a residue.
Doug Suttle, chief operating officer for BP, originally disputed the estimate of 210,000 gallons or 5,000 barrels but later admitted it was within "a range" of predictions.
He said: "Using the satellite imagery and our overflights, we can now say it looks like it's more than a thousand."
Experts are worried that the company is struggling to cope with the clean-up. But Mr Suttles welcomed support from the US army. "We'll take help from anyone," he said.
It will take up to three months if oil engineers need to drill a relief well to stop the flow by which time 20million gallons of oil could have spewed out. That would be almost double the 11million gallons from the Exxon Valdez.
