Some oil burning has now started to be carried out at the Q-4000 facility at the spill site June 18, 2010 – The fight to contain the oil and gas spewing into the Gulf of Mexico goes on. While much of the news focus over the last few days has been on Washington, D.C. and BP executives meeting with the President and testifying before Congress, the oil continues to flow from the Deepwater Horizon ruptured wellhead. Oil and gas are being brought to the surface by the containment cap, the oil is being off-loaded and gas is being burned. Now, both oil and gas are being burned off after being captured by the reverse use of the top kill procedure apparatus. But, thousands of barrels still pour into the Gulf a mile below the surface. (See live view of oil spill.) In his press briefing yesterday, Admiral Allen gave a few of the details, "While this has been going on, we’ve continued to produce oil out of the well head through the containment cap. As of yesterday though, we have the added capacity now what we call the Q4000 mobile drilling units on scene. It is actually drawing oil up through the kill pipe. That’s where we actually sent the mud down during the top kill operation. We’re actually using that as a way to evacuate more oil out in addition to what’s being produced by the Discover[er] Enterprise." "We now, once we get these both operating, have the potential to bring our production capacity up to about 28,000 barrels a day. Probably by sometime early next week. They’ll bring the rates up slowly to make sure they can control it." "The Q4000, what we are doing is we’re bringing up both natural gas and oil and they’re both being flared off. There’s an EverGreen burning device on the Q4000 that looks much like the flaring device for natural gas but it’s capable of flaring the oil itself with natural gas in it, a fairly clean burn. Not nearly what the amount of smoke that you see for an in situ burning." – From the briefing transcript

The Q4000 and the Discover Enterprise now working the Deepwater Horizon site. The photo was part of a BP PowerPoint presentation. | BP deepwater.html

The Q4000 drilling rig operates in the Gulf of Mexico at the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. AP Photo/Dave Martin

Some oil burning appears to be continuing to take place on surface water, at one or more locations

Oil is burned on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico a few miles from the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster Wednesday, June 16, Oil is still leaking from the wellhead. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Oil is burned on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico a few miles from the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster Wednesday, June 16, Oil is still leaking from the wellhead. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Oil is burned on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico a few miles from the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster Wednesday, June 16, Oil is still leaking from the wellhead. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Oil is burned on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico a few miles from the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster Wednesday, June 16, Oil is still leaking from the wellhead. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Oil is burned on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico a few miles from the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster Wednesday, June 16, Oil is still leaking from the wellhead. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Oil is burned on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico a few miles from the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster Wednesday, June 16, Oil is still leaking from the wellhead. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Smoke billows from a controlled burn of spilled oil off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico on June 13, Reuters

Early controlled burns on surface water

May 7, Shrimping vessels pull a boom through the gulf during a controlled burn. U.S. Navy-Getty Images. Picture 38 copied June 19, 2010 from Washington Post website at:

May 5 -- This image provided by the U.S. Navy shows oil burning during a controlled oil fire in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. Coast Guard working, in partnership with BP, local residents and other federal agencies, conducted the burn to help prevent the spread of oil. Mc2 Justin Stumberg-AP. Picture 63 copied June 19, 2010 from Washington Post website at:

June 18, 2010 Fighting oil with fire: cleanup falls to those who know gulf coast best By Nathan VanderKlippe, From Saturday's Globe and Mail Not sure of the date of this photo, but looks to be the April 28 controlled test burn…

A U.S. Coast Guard video clip shows a portion of the controlled burn of oil on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday, April 28, Oil burning has apparently destroyed more oil in the Gulf than virtually all skimming efforts, according to Press-Register calculations.

Other images

April A satellite photo shows the oil slick, center right, created by a 42,000-gallon-a-day leak from a well in the Gulf of Mexico following the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon platform April 20. NASA-AP. Picture 146 copied June 19, 2010 from Washington Post website at: