Reuters A sea turtle covered in oil swims off Louisiana on Tuesday. BP was capturing so much oil that it didn't have a big enough boat on site to hold it. 
 
 U.S. officials said Tuesday that BP PLC was collecting so much oil from its broken well a mile under the Gulf of Mexico that it didn't have a big enough boat to hold it—the latest in a series of miscalculations stoking a political backlash against BP and the global oil industry. 
 
 President Barack Obama on Tuesday piled the pressure on BP and its beleaguered chief executive, Tony Hayward, telling NBC News in an interview aired Tuesday that he would have fired Mr. Hayward by now if he worked for him. The president responded to criticism that his response to the crisis has been too cool and that he shouldn't be spending time meeting with experts, saying he had been talking to experts "so I know whose ass to kick." 
 
 Fighting Words Administration comments on BP and the spill: 'They are not our partner. They are not our partner.' Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, April 29, correcting a subordinate's reference to BP 'Our job basically is to keep the boot on the neck of British Petroleum to carry out the responsibilities they have.' Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, May 2 'Where I was wrong was in my belief that the oil companies had their act together when it came to worst-case scenarios.' President Obama, May 27 'I am furious at this entire situation.' Obama, June 3 'I don't sit around talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick.' Obama, interview aired June 8 
 
 Mr. Obama faces rising frustration, and according to some polls, falling approval for his administration's handling of the Gulf disaster. A few weeks ago, Mr. Obama left the rhetorical flourishes to subordinates, such as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who said the administration would keep its "boot on the neck" of BP. 
 
 But Democratic figures such as strategist and CNN pundit James Carville began taking Mr. Obama to task for not being tough enough on BP. Now, Mr. Obama himself is scolding BP, warning the company last week against "nickel and diming" Gulf residents, and using a series of televised interviews this week to say he was "furious" about the situation. More substantively, the White House is now backing a move to lift all caps on liability oil companies could face for spilling crude. 
 
 Frustration over the spill could cost BP and its oil industry rivals heavily in the years to come. The costs will come in the form of new regulations—such as those issued Tuesday by the Obama administration as the prerequisite for companies to resume offshore drilling in waters shallower than 500 feet. 
 
 The new rules call for, among other things, more extensive inspection and certification of blowout preventers, the huge devices that are supposed to stanch the flow of oil from a damaged well. A failed blowout preventer is one factor in the huge BP spill. 
 
 Congressional Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, met Tuesday and emerged to declare they were determined, in her words, "to exploit and enforce the laws that are there; change them if necessary; and pass others to make us stronger in terms of protecting the interest of the taxpayer, the economy, the ecology, the quality of life of the region." 
 
 The industry—or consumers—could also pay in the form of higher taxes. Legislation pending in the Senate would increase a per-barrel tax paid by oil companies to 41 cents, up from 8 cents, raising $14 billion over 10 years. The tax is supposed to support a government fund created in 1990 after the Exxon Valdez spill to help fund cleanup projects. 
 
 Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Tuesday that Democrats were raiding the fund to pay for programs not related to oil-spill cleanup. New revenue raised by the levy "ought to be used to clean up spills," he said. 
 
 Oil companies will pay in another way: Lost or delayed opportunities to drill. The U.S. has called a six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling and cancelled the sale of oil leases off the East Coast and Alaska. The Obama administration had also halted shallow-water drilling pending the issuance of the new rules; complying with those rules could keep rigs off the water for more days or weeks. 
 
 Photos: Oil Impacts Animal Life View Slideshow Angel Gonzalez for The Wall Street Journal Brown pelicans overlooked containment boom lines at their nesting grounds in the Cat Bay Islands in Louisiana. Tar Reaches the Florida Coast View Slideshow Reuters 
 
 The new rules issued Tuesday require a company's chief executive to personally certify that the operator has complied with all regulations, that drilling equipment has been tested and that personnel are properly trained, among other things. And they require independent verification for a number of systems, particularly blowout preventers. 
 
 "We are pleased that a framework is beginning to take shape to allow shallow-water drilling activity to resume," the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group for oil companies, said in a statement. The group cautioned it was studying the details of the new shallow-water rules, and said it remained concerned that the moratorium on deepwater projects would threaten jobs and oil production. 
 
 The shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico account for about 55% of all natural gas produced in the Gulf and about 20% of all the oil. The deepwater region, where BP was drilling an exploratory well that blew up, accounts for more than 80% of the oil produced in the region. 
 
 Michel Claudet, president of Terrebonne Parish, said the resumption of shallow-water drilling wouldn't help his parish. Deepwater exploration and drilling supports far more jobs. 
 
 "We'll live through the seafood [collapse], even though we don't want to. But this whole moratorium will be a nail in the coffin of Terrebonne Parish," he said. 
 
 So far, the oil industry has dodged major regulatory clampdowns elsewhere in the world. 
 
 Norway on Tuesday said it was "not appropriate" to allow new deepwater drilling until the Deepwater Horizon incident had been fully investigated, but the government said it would go ahead with plans to award new exploration licenses in its territorial waters next year. 
 
 The U.K. said Tuesday it wouldn't halt drilling in the West of Shetland area north of Scotland, one of the most promising deepwater sites in Europe. Officials did announce plans to double the number of annual environmental inspections of drilling rigs. 
 
 In the Gulf, BP's costs for the disaster are mounting fast. Late Tuesday, the British oil giant said it would donate net revenue from the oil it is collecting from the well to organizations working on the Gulf cleanup effort. The company still faces pressure from the Obama Administration to pay more, faster, and to move more rapidly to capture oil from its well. 
 
 BP, which is capturing about 15,000 barrels a day from the well now, plans in the next week or so to expand its oil-containment effort by another 5,000 barrels a day, deploying another vessel already at the site of the spill. The company is also bringing in storage vessels from elsewhere in the world, including a tanker from the North Sea. 
 
 A group of scientists working for the U.S. government is expected to release later this week a new estimate of how much oil is flowing from the well. Scientists charged with studying the flow rate are now analyzing high-resolution video of the leak using a method called particle image velocimetry, which involves observing separate features in the flow from one frame to the next to measure the velocity of the fluid. 
 
 --Laura Meckler contributed to this article. 
 
 Write to Guy Chazan at guy.chazan@wsj.com and Susan Daker at susan.daker@dowjones.com ||||| Now that crews are collecting more and more oil from the sea-bottom spill, the question is where to put it. 
 
 BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Settles discusses the drill site with officials as he tours the cleanup efforts along the beaches of Gulf Shores, Ala. with Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft Tuesday June... (Associated Press) 
 
 Patches of oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill are burned in the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday, June 8, 2010. The cap over the broken BP wellhead is collecting more gushing crude day by day, but that's about... (Associated Press) 
 
 This image from video provided by BP PLC early Wednesday morning, June 9, 2010 shows oil continuing to pour out at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. The cap placed on the... (Associated Press) 
 
 The Transocean Discoverer Enterprise burns off some natural gas as it takes on oil from the broken BP wellhead at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday, June 8, 2010. The cap over the broken BP wellhead... (Associated Press) 
 
 The Transocean Discoverer Enterprise burns off some natural gas as it takes on oil from the broken BP wellhead at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday, June 8, 2010. The cap over the broken BP wellhead... (Associated Press) 
 
 Boats skim oil from the surface of the Gulf of Mexico near the site of the Deepwater Horizon Tuesday, June 8, 2010. The cap over the broken BP wellhead at the bottom of the Gulf is collecting more gushing... (Associated Press) 
 
 The Transocean Discoverer Enterprise burns off some natural gas as it takes on oil from the broken BP wellhead at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday, June 8, 2010. The cap over the broken BP wellhead... (Associated Press) 
 
 An oil sheen is seen near the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday, June 8, 2010. The cap over the broken BP wellhead is collecting more gushing crude day by day, but... (Associated Press) 
 
 How about burning it? 
 
 Equipment collecting the oil and bringing it to the surface is believed to be nearing its daily processing capacity. A floating platform could be the solution to process most of the flow, BP said. 
 
 To burn it, the British oil giant is preparing to use a device called an EverGreen Burner, officials said. It turns a flow of oil and gas into a vapor that is pushed out its 12 nozzles and burned without creating visible smoke. 
 
 Methods for gathering and disposing of the oil collected from the seafloor gusher are becoming clearer. What's not is how much oil is eluding capture. 
 
 Scientists on a team analyzing the flow said Tuesday that the amount of crude still spewing into the Gulf of Mexico might be considerably greater than what the government and company have claimed. 
 
 Their assertions _ combined with BP's rush to build a bigger cap and its apparent difficulty in immediately processing all the oil being collected _ have only added to the impression that BP is still floundering in dealing with the catastrophe. 
 
 A cap placed on the ruptured well last week to channel much of the billowing oil to a surface ship collected about 620,000 gallons Monday and another 330,000 from midnight to noon Tuesday, BP said. 
 
 That would mean the cap is collecting better than half the escaping oil, based on the government's estimate that around 600,000 to 1.2 million gallons a day are leaking from the bottom of the sea. 
 
 A team of researchers and government officials and run by the director of the U.S. Geological Survey is studying the flow rate and hopes to present its findings in the coming days on what is already the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. 
 
 In an interview with The Associated Press, team member and Purdue University engineering professor Steve Wereley said it was a "reasonable conclusion" but not the team's final one to say that the daily flow rate is, in fact, somewhere between 798,000 gallons and 1.8 million gallons. 
 
 Whatever the amount, all that oil has to end up somewhere. The floating production and storage vessel BP plans to bring in could be part of the answer, officials said. 
 
 "It's being brought in because it can handle far more oil than this well is producing," said Wine, who did not know where the vessel would come from or when it would arrive. 
 
 The burn rig will be moved away from the main leak site so the flames and heat do not endanger other vessels, BP spokesman Max McGahan said. 
 
 Depending on which model is used and its settings, it can handle from 10,500 to 630,000 gallons of oil a day, according to promotional materials by Schlumberger Ltd., the company that makes the device and whose website touts it as producing "fallout-free and smokeless combustion." 
 
 It's unclear how many times the EverGreen burner has been used, but it has been proposed for at least one offshore rig in the North Sea to get rid of unwanted gases produced during oil processing. 
 
 Environmental documents produced as part of that project, an exploration well proposed by Total E&P of Britain, said burning the oil posed "a moderate risk to the environment" that would release sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, methane and other chemicals. 
 
 But Wilma Subra, a chemist with the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, said BP should avoid burning the captured oil _ which she said raises new health risks _ and instead bring in more processing equipment. 
 
 "This is one of those decisions that will have negative impacts," she said. "Even though it's crude dispersed in water, the burning of crude will raise some health issues." 
 
 When it sells the oil recovered from the Gulf, BP will use the revenues to create a fund to protect wildlife in the region, the company said. 
 
 Attempts to skim the oil from the surface are progressing as well. Boats fanned out across the Gulf on Tuesday, dragging boom in an attempt to corral the oil. But it's an enormous task. 
 
 In some spots, the oil is several inches thick and forms a brown taffy-like goo that sticks to everything it touches. 
 
 John Young, chairman of Louisiana's Jefferson Parish Council, said additional equipment has been ordered and more dredgers will be moving into the area soon, along with barges that will help block the passes. 
 
 "It's nice that BP has put up the money, but they need to ramp up not only the manpower but the equipment out there because we're losing the battle," Young said. "Unfortunately, we're on day 50 and it's too little too late, but I guess it's better late than never." 
 
 In the seven weeks since the oil rig explosion that set off the catastrophe, BP has had to improvise at every turn. The most recent government estimates put the total amount of oil lost at 23.7 million to 51.5 million gallons. 
 
 When asked why BP did not have containment systems on standby in case of a leak, BP spokesman Robert Wine said there was no reason to think an accident on this scale was likely. 
 
 "It's unprecedented," he said. "That's why these caps weren't there before." 
 
 President Barack Obama is scheduled to return to the Gulf Coast on Monday and Tuesday for a two-day update on the Gulf oil spill. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Contributing to this report were AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington and Associated Press writers Matthew Brown in Billings, Mont., Harry R. Weber in Houston, Tamara Lush and Jeff McMillan in New Orleans, and Brian Skoloff in Barataria Bay, La.
– Adding to the growing international backlash against BP's botched handling of the Gulf oil spill, US officials said yesterday that the oil giant is collecting for sale so much of the oil gushing out of the broken well that it doesn't have a big enough boat to hold it, the Wall Street Journal reports. BP's latest solution? Burn it at the surface in a smokeless contraption called an EverGreen Burner, reports the AP. "It's being brought in because it can handle far more oil than this well is producing," says one expert of the burn rig. The move is the latest to call into question BP's preparedness—as well as the true quantity of oil gushing from the busted wellhead, notes the AP, which some experts say could be far greater than official government estimates.