国际英语新闻：BP's second oil-containment system in operation

BP's first oil containment system is siphoning about 630,000 gallons of oil a day through a cap on top of the underwater well to the Discover Enterprise tanker on the Gulf's surface.

The company had expected the new system could help boost the amount of oil it captures so as to help it reach its goal of collecting 2.2 million gallons of oil a day by late June, or nearly 90 percent of the oil a team of government scientists believe is leaking from the well.

Also on Wednesday, BP's chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said it will suspend its quarterly dividends and sell 10 billion U.S. dollars of assets to support a planned fund to pay for its Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

"The BP board decided we will not pay any further dividends this year," said Carl-Henric Svanberg, after a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in the White House.

Svanberg apologized to the American people for the catastrophic oil spill, and pledged to look after people affected by the spill and to repair damage to the environment.

"We have agreed today with the president a framework that should assure the American people that we mean what we say," Svanberg told reporters.

Svanberg also confirmed that his company has agreed to set aside an initial 20 billion dollars to pay the victims of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.