As much as 40,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil a day could spill into the Gulf of Mexico from a leaking BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) deepwater well under the worst cases envisioned by company officials, a lawmaker said on Tuesday.

Rep. Ed Markey (D, Mass.) said the worst-case estimate was provided by officials in a briefing on Tuesday. Officials from BP, Halliburton Corp. (HAL) and Transocean Ltd. (RIG) met with members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Officials are struggling to get a handle on the scope of the problem. The official estimate remains that the well is leaking 5,000 barrels a day, according to Markey. The most likely worst-case scenario would involve a spill of 40,000 barrels a day, though the leak could reach as high as 60,000 barrels a day.

BP didn't mention these gloomier worst-case numbers in discussions with Sen. Bill Nelson (D, Fla.), according to his spokesman, Dan McLaughlin. Instead, BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward and others "expressed confidence" that a plan to lower a huge dome over the main leak by this weekend could succeed in capturing a large amount of the oil.

"They seemed confident," he said, "but they were also cautious in their assessment, as this method has not been tested at these depths."

On Sunday, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on CNN that the spill may be worse than the 1989 Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) Valdez spill in Alaska . Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said in a separate Sunday appearance on ABC that the current spill rate could be in the "tens of thousands" of barrels per day, while Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said separately on Sunday that the worst fear is that the well could leak at 100,000 barrels a day.

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