The United State government officials has confirmed on Wednesday night that the oil from a well in the Gulf of Mexico is leaking at a rate which may be five times as large as compared to the initial estimates.

Reports reaching here from the United states suggest that Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry of the Coast Guard told a media gathering at New Orleans that a scientist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had concluded that oil is leaking at the rate of 5,000 barrels a day, not 1,000 as had been estimated.

Trans-ocean owned rig, Deepwater Horizon caught fire after an explosion on April 20, leaving 11 workers missing. The rig sank two days later about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. The oil spilling out is sweet crude, which is low in sulfur. However, the crews have not been able so far to stop the oil leakage.

Rig operator BP PLC said Tuesday that it planned to begin drilling a relief well to redirect the leaking oil in a $100 million effort to take the pressure off the blown-out well.

Company spokesman Robert Wine told the Associated Press (AP) that the drilling will take up to three months and will be done from a rig now in place near where the Deepwater Horizon sank.

Louisiana-based BP spokesman Neil Chapman was quoted as saying that some 49 vessels -- oil skimmers, tugboats barges and special recovery boats that separate oil from water -- are working to round up oil.

Tags: BP PLC