The Coast Guard estimated that up to 1,000 of barrels of oil, or 42,000 gallons (158,987 liters) were spewing each day from a riser and a drill pipe, prompting further concerns of damage to Louisiana's fragile ecosystem, already stressed by hurricanes and coastal erosion.

Officials confirmed the discovery a day after the Coast Guard said that no oil appeared to be leaking from the well head.

Coast Guard Eighth District commander Rear Admiral Mary Landry told reporters the leak likely began on Thursday, when the rig sank two days after an initial explosion tore through the Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible oil drilling platform.

The best case scenario is sealing off the pipe ruptures in a few days; the worst case scenario is a matter of months. The Coast Guard said it would take several days before they determine how to stop the pipe leaks 5,000 feet (1,525 meters) down in the Gulf waters.

Petty Officer Connie Terrell told AFP the oil sheen was now 20 miles (32 kilometers) in diameter about 40 miles (64 km) off the Louisiana coast. Over 33,700 gallons (127,570 liters) of oily water mix have been recovered in the cleanup effort so far, she said.

"This is a devastating spill," said Anne Rolfes, an environmental activist and founding director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, which is bracing for wild fowl rescue efforts should the miles-long mix of crude oil and diesel fuel reach Louisiana's fragile coastal wetlands.

On Friday, the Coast Guard officially ended the search for 11 workers who had been missing since the platform erupted into flames late Tuesday.

Some 700,000 gallons of diesel fuel were on board the platform before the blast, and it had been drilling 8,000 barrels, or 336,000 gallons, of oil a day, according to officials.

earlier related report
Search called off for missing workers after US oil blast
New Orleans, Louisiana (AFP) April 24, 2010 - The US Coast Guard has called off a search for 11 workers who went missing and are now presumed dead after a blast tore through an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico earlier in the week.

Crews were toiling to clean up the mess left by the rig, which finally sank Thursday after an apparent blowout caused an explosion and fire. But officials said no oil was leaking from the collapsed structure, easing fears of an environmental disaster.

Coast Guard Eighth District commander Rear Admiral Mary Landry said the missing workers likely never made it off the drilling platform during the explosion and raging fire late Tuesday.

"The time of reasonable expectation of survivability has passed," Landry said about the workers, whose names were withheld at the discretion of their families. The 11 were from Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Coast Guard helicopters, planes and boats frantically searched a large area around the platform site off the southern US coast for three days, but found no sign of those missing.

The other 115 workers onboard the Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible rig at the time of the explosion made it to safety, although 17 were airlifted to hospital after suffering injuries.

Only two remained in hospital, with the most seriously injured worker due to be released next week, Landry said.

The Coast Guard warned the disaster had the potential to become "a major oil spill."

But it remained unclear just how much oil had spilled from the rig, owned by Transocean Ltd. and under contract to British oil giant BP. Investigations into the exact cause of the accident are ongoing.

Company officials did not say Friday how they proposed to plug the well.

"Essentially, they're trying to put a cork in a bottle of champagne," said Richard Metcalf, a spokesperson for the pro-industry Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association.

A thin oil sheen two miles (three kilometers) wide by eight miles (13 km) long covered the waters, Coast Guard Petty Officer Ashley Butler told AFP.

It would take nine days for the sheen to reach the Louisiana coast, according to a Coast Guard projection.

However "at the rate we're going we don't expect it to hit land," said Coast Guard spokesman Casey Baker.

Although there appeared to be no oil leaking at the water's surface or from a well head on the ocean floor, crews were closely monitoring the platform for any further crude oil spill, Landry said.

BP dispatched a fleet of boats, including 32 vessels to clean up the spill and remotely operated vehicles to monitor the well, in a bid to keep environmental damage in check.

Officials meanwhile warned the accident could become the worst in the United States since the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill, considered one of the worst-ever man-made environmental disasters.

That spill poured nearly 11 million gallons (41 million liters) of crude into Alaska's Prince William Sound, devastating some 750 miles of its once-pristine shores.

"It appears there is no oil coming out of the well at this time," Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Mike O'Berry said after an inspection of the sunken offshore oil rig. "We're not out of the woods yet but that is some positive news."

Officials acknowledged the surface oil slick had grown, but said authorities were working to prevent the oil from reaching shore in the Gulf states of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

Experts have warned that any oil spilled from the huge drilling rig that sank 45 miles (70 kilometers) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, could threaten fragile Gulf coast ecosystems, already stressed by hurricanes and coastal erosion.

President Barack Obama said the federal response to the disastrous spill "was being treated as the number one priority."

Some 700,000 gallons of diesel fuel were on board the platform before the blast, and it had been drilling 8,000 barrels, or 336,000 gallons, of oil a day, according to officials.

O'Berry said US authorities deployed several oil-skimming vessels to try to limit the pollution, and the Coast Guard had sent a mini-submarine equipped with cameras to determine the oil flow.

If the spill cannot be contained, Louisiana's coast would be at risk, with wild birds, breeding grounds for shrimp and oyster beds threatened by the slick.

Before the rig sank, oil fires raged for more than a day and a half following a spectacular explosion that sent huge balls of flame leaping into the night sky.

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