spill was pouring into the Gulf every day for a month . Proegler declined to estimate how much more oil was escaping . BP America Chairman Lamar McKay said Wednesday that the figure used by the oil spill response team had a degree of `` uncertainty '' built into it . But figures by independent researchers have run up to many times higher : Steve Wereley , a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University , told CNN 's `` American Morning '' that the spill could be as big as 20,000 to 100,000 barrels a day . And members of Congress released video from the company that showed much more oil pouring out of the damaged well than the siphon was capturing . Rep. Ed Markey , who leads a House subcommittee investigating the disaster , told reporters , `` I think now we are beginning to understand that we can not trust BP . '' `` People do not trust the experts any longer , '' said Markey , D-Massachusetts . `` BP has lost all credibility . Now the decisions will have to be made by others , because it is clear that they have been hiding
Washington -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A BP official says a gusher of oil pouring from its damaged Gulf of Mexico well could be shut off as early as next week . BP Managing Director Bo Dudley said Thursday night the company will pump fluids into the well this weekend in the beginning of a process that -- if successful -- could lead to the leak finally being closed off in a matter of days . `` If that option does n't work , we 've got a second and a third option we 'll do after that , '' Dudley said on CNN 's Larry King on Thursday . `` We 're hopeful that next week we 'll be able to shut it off . '' Earlier in the day , BP acknowledged that the underwater gusher is bigger than estimated to date , as new video showed a cloud of crude billowing around its undersea siphon . Company spokesman Mark Proegler said Thursday that the siphon is now drawing about 5,000 barrels -LRB- 210,000 gallons -RRB- per day up to a ship on the surface of the Gulf -- as much as government and company officials had estimated the