Follow up to postings on the Gulf Coast oil spill, this letter to: Doug Suttles, Chief Operating Officer, Exploration & Production, BP America Inc. From: James A. Watson, Rear Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard, Federal On-Scene Coordinator: “The discharge of oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is unprecedented in American history. This crisis has resulted in devastating damages to the economic, environmental, social interests of every community in the Gulf Coast and the nation as a whole. Despite the massive commitment of Federal and state resources to respond to this disaster, the Macondo 252 well has discharged millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, for which BP is a Responsible Party. Now that the so-called “top hat” containment system has begun to capture and recover some of the oil escaping from the wellhead, it is imperative that you put equipment, systems and processes in place to ensure that the remaining oil and gas flowing can be recovered, taking into account safety, environmental and meteorological factors. Based upon the foregoing, and in my capacity as Federal On Scene Coordinator, I am instructing BP to establish system(s) capable of safely collecting the oil and gas flowing from the Macondo 252 well. The system(s) established must have appropriate redundancies to maintain complete collection rates in the event that operational problems are encountered in any part of the system.”