Factbox: Developments in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill

(Reuters) - Here are developments in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the largest in U.S. history:

SPILL CONTAINMENT EFFORTS

* BP said on Wednesday it had collected a little more than 15,000 barrels of oil with its containment cap system on Tuesday at the 7-week-old leak in the Gulf of Mexico, U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said at a press briefing in Washington on Wednesday.

* That brings the cumulative total for five days to more than 57,000 barrels.

* Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said by next week BP would bring in equipment that could handle up to 28,000 barrels per day (bpd), 3,000 barrels more than the highest estimate to date of spill volume.

OIL SLICK THREAT

* BP continues to play down reports of an undersea oil plume. "We have not found any significant concentration of oil below the surface," BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Wednesday.

* Northwest Florida officials are warning the public not to swim on six miles of oil-hit beach on Perdido Key from the Alabama-Florida boundary to the Gulf Islands Seashore national park.

* The spill could put nearly 195,000 Floridians out of work and cost the state $10.9 billion, according to a study by University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith.

POLITICS

* U.S. Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar told a Senate panel on Wednesday he expects BP to pay the salaries of oil workers laid off because of the six-month U.S. moratorium on deepwater drilling.

* Salazar also told the panel the government could lift the moratorium sooner than six months if it receives a commission's regulatory reform recommendations before that period ends.

* Three other congressional committees also were to take up the spill on Wednesday.

* President Barack Obama plans to visit the Gulf Coast again next week.

* BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward will testify before a U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce subcommittee on June 17, a company spokesman said.

COMPANY NEWS

* BP depositary shares were down more than 9 percent in New York at midday, down more than 4 percent in London.

* The shares of offshore oil and gas driller Transocean Ltd ticked up 0.1 percent at midday but stayed near 18-month lows.

* BP in its annual energy review Wednesday said oil output in the Gulf of Mexico increased 390,000 bpd, triple the previous high in annual growth. BP also said world oil consumption fell by 1.2 million bpd in 2009 due to recession.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"If we can get this thing up to 28,000 barrels per day, that's where we want to be," Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen told reporters in a conference call, referring to BP's plan to increase capacity to recover spilled oil.