UPDATE BP: Recovers 11,070 Bbl/Oil, 23.2 Mcf Nat Gas From Spill By Noon Sunday

(Updates with BP's rate of oil, gas recovery for first half of Sunday) By Angel Gonzalez Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) said it recovered about 11,070 barrels of oil and flared 23.2 million cubic feet of natural gas from a mile-deep leak in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in the first 12 hours of Sunday. About 6,790 barrels of oil were collected and 4,280 barrels were burned, the company said as its spill-capture efforts recovered from a technical upset Friday night. Themal function, combined with bad weather, led to the 10-hour shutdown of the larger of two oil-collecting vessels, the Discoverer Enterprise. BP restarted the collection aboard the ship effort early Saturday, after cleaning a blocked flame arrestor--a vent that prevents collected oil from catching fire. On Saturday, the company captured about 21,040 barrels of oil and flared 43.4 million cubic feet of natural gas, a rate lower than Thursday's record of more than 25,000 barrels a day. So far the containment effort has recovered more than a quarter of a million barrels of crude; that's approximately the amount of oil leaked by the Exxon Valdez in 1989. The spill BP is trying to contain is estimated to be leaking between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels of oil every day into the Gulf's waters. The closely-watched figures for oil recovery reflect the intense pressure BP is under to contain the spill. The leak, one of the worst environmental disasters ever to afflict the Gulf region, continues to grow nearly two months after a rig leased by BP, the Deepwater Horizon, exploded and sank some 50 miles from the Louisiana shore, killing 11. The company aims to increase its capture rate to more than 50,000 barrels a day by the end of June and to as much as 80,000 by mid-July by bringing in new equipment. BP executives and the U.S. Coast Guard admiral overseeing the response effort, Thad Allen, have warned that further disruptions are likely if storms pass through the area during this summer, as responders would need to evacuate. Even as collection efforts at the surface intensify, BP is moving forward with a parallel strategy to permanently shut down the leaking well by intersecting it with another well and flooding it with cement. A BP executive said Friday that it expected to do so by early August. -By Angel Gonzalez, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9214; angel.gonzalez@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 20, 2010 19:31 ET (23:31 GMT)