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Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles told The Associated Press Tuesday in Gulf Shores, Ala., that the flow should decrease to "a relative trickle" soon.

BP later sought to clarify his comments, saying that even though the company is optimistic it can make measurable progress in the next week in reducing the flow, it will take more time to reach the point that the spill amounts to a trickle.

Suttles said BP hopes to have an improved containment system operating by Monday or Tuesday. Those are the same days President Barack Obama plans to visit the region.

Suttles also continues to insist that no massive underwater oil plumes in “large concentrations” have been detected from the spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

His comments came Wednesday morning on network news shows, a day after the government said water tests confirmed underwater oil plumes from the oil spill, but that concentrations are “very low.”

Suttles told NBC's “Today” show that it “may be down to how you define what a plume is here.”

NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said Tuesday that the tests conducted at three sites by a University of South Florida research vessel confirmed oil as far as 3,300 feet below the surface 42 miles northeast of the well site.

Meanwhile, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the oil spill containment operation is now catching up to 630,000 gallons daily.

Assessing efforts to restrain the oil spill, Allen told reporters that “we continue to make progress,” although he said reinforcement help is on the way, including an expected shutter tanker from the North Sea within the next few days.

Allen also said that with temperatures rising in the stricken area, officials have concern about the safety of workers involved in the containment effort. He also said Obama administration officials are talking with BP about a longer-term containment strategy with “built-in redundancies.”

He said that he and other officials are meeting with BP later Wednesday to discuss problems with the handling of damage claims related to the April 20 accident.

Allen has written to BP, demanding more specific information on how the company is handling damage claims stemming from the Gulf oil spill.

Allen told BP CEO Tony Hayward in a letter dated Tuesday that his office and state offices in the stricken area "have made several requests for additional information which we have not received."

Allen said earlier he doubted that BP could efficiently handle petitions for relief by individuals and businesses. He said his impression was that the company was struggling because of little experience in this area. He told Hayward the information is needed so the government can “meet our responsibilities to our citizens.”

In a Twitter message Tuesday, BP PLC said it had issued about 18,000 checks totaling $49 million and 90 percent of those checks have gone to fishermen.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley earlier called out the National Guard to help spread the word among coastal residents in his state that they can apply to BP for compensation for losses stemming from the spill.

He said Guardsmen will go through communities for three weeks telling people about the claims process.

In Washington, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is reassuring Congress that the Obama administration has pressed what he described as the “pause button, not the stop button,” on all offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere.

Salazar, testifying Wednesday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, described the recent moratorium that President Barack Obama put in place for offshore deepwater drilling, along with new requirements for shallow water oil drilling.

Gulf residents rely heavily on paychecks from the oil industry and are worried about their economic futures.

President Obama and congressional Democrats are trying to prevent a political disaster along with the environmental one, as they try to convince Americans frustrated by the oil spill that BP and Republican coziness with the oil industry are to blame.

Four Democratic-controlled committees are holding hearings Wednesday on oil-spill-related issues as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sets a strict deadline for new oil spill legislation.

A Washington Post poll shows 48 percent of those surveyed now say Obama does not understand the problems of people like them, the highest percentage of his presidency.

Obama plans a two-day visit to the Gulf Coast next week, his fourth since the spill began.

Tony Hayward, the embattled CEO of BP, will make his first appearance on Capitol Hill since the catastrophic Gulf oil spill when he testifies before a congressional committee next week.

Hayward is scheduled to appear at a House Energy and Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee hearing June 17. The subject of the hearing is the role of BP in the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.

Hayward enraged some when he said, "I'd like my life back." He's sure to receive pointed questions from lawmakers about the cause of the accident and the response to it.

Lawmakers are also working on legislation to address the issue.

House Speaker Pelosi has set a strict timetable for the lawmakers to act on bills to cope with the Gulf oil spill and prevent similar disasters.

Pelosi said House committees should have legislation ready by July 4. The House would then act on the bills by the time of the summer recess on Aug. 9.

The speaker set the timetable Tuesday after a meeting with committee chairmen.