Oil slick may hit Louisiana coast by Friday, Coast Guard says

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Federal officials said Wednesday they expect the first oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill to hit the tip of Louisiana by Friday morning if winds from the southeast continue.

The U.S. Coast Guard Wednesday released the latest map of the spill and the slick’s projected landfall.

Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said BP is expected to conduct a burn-off of oil and has deployed 100,000 feet of booms, with another 500,000 feet available. Dispersants also are being used, she and BP officials said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.”We have not run out of boom. We have not run out of anything. We have everything we need,” Landry said.

An estimated 1,000 barrels of oil a day have been leaking into Gulf of Mexico waters since the Deepwater Horizon oil platform burned and sank last week.

Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for exploration and production at BP, which leased the rig, said an on-site burn “should happen at any point.... We fully expect we’ll have a burn today.”

Seven whales have been observed in the area, but none showed signs of distress, federal officials said.

-- Geoff Mohan