A supertanker adapted to scoop up oil from the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico began tests on Saturday amid a report that some major investors expect the energy giant to replace its top executives. The vessel named “A Whale” and dubbed a “super skimmer” is operating just north of the blown out well as part of a two-day test watched by the U.S. Coastguard, said Bob Grantham, spokesman for TMT Shipping Offshore, which owns the ship. If all goes to plan TMT hopes to sign a clean-up contract for the ship, which can remove up to 500,000 barrels (21 million gallons) of oil and water mix from the sea surface a day, according to crew members.

BP sharply reduced its estimate on Monday of how much oil it is siphoning off each day from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico that has been spewing oil for a month and threatening ecological disaster. The British-based energy giant said the oil captured on average by a mile-long siphon tube was 2,010 barrels (84,420 gallons/319,500 liters) per day in the six days before May 23, less than half the up to 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons/795,000 liters) per day the company estimated it had been capturing. At times the capture was as low as 1,360 barrels per day (57,120 gallons/216,200 liters). The oil group believes about 5,000 barrels have been leaking every day, although some experts have given significantly higher estimates for the size of the leak. The lower estimate came as two members of U.S. President Barack Obama’s Cabinet were to visit the fouled Gulf Coast on Monday to keep pressure on BP in hopes of averting a looming environmental catastrophe.

Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator, the top U.S. environmental official was to visit the Gulf Coast on Sunday as energy giant BP Plc scrambled to contain a widening oil spill. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson planned to return to the Gulf to monitor the EPA’s response, while Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was to travel to the BP Command Center in Houston to get an update from the federal science team working on the problem. The two Cabinet members’ missions underscore the rising political and economic stakes for the Obama administration in dealing with the environmental disaster, which grows worse as oil gushes from a ruptured well on the sea floor.

Heavy oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill threatened Louisiana marshlands on Thursday after washing ashore for the first time since a BP-operated rig exploded a month ago, sparking ecological disaster. Calling it a “day that we have all been fearing,” Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said on Wednesday that heavy oil — not simply tar balls or sheen — had entered the state’s prized wetlands. “It’s already here but we know more is coming,” he said. The marshes are the nurseries for shrimp, oysters, crabs and fish that make Louisiana the leading producer of commercial seafood in the continental United States. A large no-fishing zone in Gulf waters seen as affected by the spill has been imposed.

Oil spill workers raced against time in the Gulf of Mexico, hoping to seize on at least one more day of calm in their fight to contain a huge and growing slick before winds turn against them. Cleanup crews along the U.S. shore have had a few days’ reprieve as the slow-moving slick, from oil spewing from a damaged deep-water well, remained parked in waters that for now are placid. “The winds are helpful to us, but on Thursday they begin to be less helpful,” Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said in New Orleans.

BP Plc sought to stem the damage from a giant oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico with technology, welding torches and money on Tuesday as crude kept spewing from an offshore oil well deep in the Gulf of Mexico that ruptured almost two weeks ago. The British oil company, under pressure from Washington to limit the damage, said it will try containing the crude with a massive metal, funnel-like structure. BP said it has offered the Gulf Coast states whose shores could be soiled with oil millions of dollars to move forward with recovery projects. The looming ecological and economic disaster has started to fuel high-level opposition to the Obama administration’s push to open more waters to offshore drilling to bolster energy security. The White House has said the spill could force President Barack Obama to rethink plans to open more waters.