Obama defends his actions as BP siphons oil
Source: Agencies |
June 6, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
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UNITED States' President Barack Obama defended his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill yesterday, while BP said it aims to siphon off most of the oil gushing from the ruptured deep-sea wellhead within days.
Using robot submarines, British energy giant BP has clamped a containment cap over the ruptured wellhead 1.6 kilometers below the ocean surface.
But initial estimates of how much crude oil was being collected and siphoned safely to the surface amounted to a fraction of the oil that continued to belch from the ruined well.
Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, told TV networks the containment cap placed on the well pipe "should work" by capturing upward of 90 percent of the gushing crude.
The unfolding ecological and economic disaster along the US Gulf Coast, which began on April 20, has presented a stern test of Obama's leadership. He has faced criticism that the US government has not done enough to tackle the crisis.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said his administration had put in place the largest response to an environmental disaster in US history. He said the government had been "mobilized on every front," with more than 1,900 ships and 20,000 people helping clean up the spill.
On Friday, the president paid his third visit to the Gulf Coast since the offshore oil rig blowout.
Meeting with politicians and residents in Louisiana, the hardest-hit state so far, Obama said of the new containment system, "it is way too early to be optimistic."
Showing uncharacteristic anger, Obama warned BP against skimping on compensation for people whose way of life has been disrupted.
He chided BP for spending lavishly on TV advertising to improve its image and a plan to pay a US$10.5 billion quarterly dividend to shareholders while the Gulf region faced economic and environmental havoc of epic proportions.
"What I don't want to hear is, when they're spending that kind of money on their shareholders and spending that kind of money on TV advertising, that they're nickel and dimming fishermen or small businesses here in the Gulf."
BP, facing a US criminal investigation amid mounting lawsuits, dwindling investor confidence and questions about its credit-worthiness, delayed word on whether it would suspend the dividend payment to shareholders, as some US politicians demanded.
Eleven crew members of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig died in the explosion that began the disaster.
BP has named American executive Robert Dudley to guide the British company's "ongoing and long-term business response" to the disaster.
British CEO Tony Hayward, who has faced criticism for a string of comments he made in recent weeks about the accident, said Dudley's job will be, among other things, to "help manage" the impact of the disaster on BP's reputation.
Using robot submarines, British energy giant BP has clamped a containment cap over the ruptured wellhead 1.6 kilometers below the ocean surface.
But initial estimates of how much crude oil was being collected and siphoned safely to the surface amounted to a fraction of the oil that continued to belch from the ruined well.
Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, told TV networks the containment cap placed on the well pipe "should work" by capturing upward of 90 percent of the gushing crude.
The unfolding ecological and economic disaster along the US Gulf Coast, which began on April 20, has presented a stern test of Obama's leadership. He has faced criticism that the US government has not done enough to tackle the crisis.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said his administration had put in place the largest response to an environmental disaster in US history. He said the government had been "mobilized on every front," with more than 1,900 ships and 20,000 people helping clean up the spill.
On Friday, the president paid his third visit to the Gulf Coast since the offshore oil rig blowout.
Meeting with politicians and residents in Louisiana, the hardest-hit state so far, Obama said of the new containment system, "it is way too early to be optimistic."
Showing uncharacteristic anger, Obama warned BP against skimping on compensation for people whose way of life has been disrupted.
He chided BP for spending lavishly on TV advertising to improve its image and a plan to pay a US$10.5 billion quarterly dividend to shareholders while the Gulf region faced economic and environmental havoc of epic proportions.
"What I don't want to hear is, when they're spending that kind of money on their shareholders and spending that kind of money on TV advertising, that they're nickel and dimming fishermen or small businesses here in the Gulf."
BP, facing a US criminal investigation amid mounting lawsuits, dwindling investor confidence and questions about its credit-worthiness, delayed word on whether it would suspend the dividend payment to shareholders, as some US politicians demanded.
Eleven crew members of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig died in the explosion that began the disaster.
BP has named American executive Robert Dudley to guide the British company's "ongoing and long-term business response" to the disaster.
British CEO Tony Hayward, who has faced criticism for a string of comments he made in recent weeks about the accident, said Dudley's job will be, among other things, to "help manage" the impact of the disaster on BP's reputation.
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