Obama inspects efforts to cap Gulf oil spurt
Source: Agencies |
May 29, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
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UNITED States President Barack Obama returned to the endangered Gulf of Mexico coast yesterday, as oil giant BP said it would be two more days before it knows whether it has clamped shut a broken well that has gushed millions of liters of crude for more than a month.
Obama made his second visit to the Gulf shore, where oil now washes ashore -- killing wildlife, fouling fragile wetlands and marring white sand beaches. On Thursday, Obama took responsibility for stopping the spewing well but admitted the US government doesn't have the technology or expertise for the job and must rely on BP.
Yesterday morning, BP PLC CEO Tony Hayward said it would be about 48 hours before it can be known if pumping heavy mud into the blown-out well is successful in stopping what is now the worst US oil spill.
Hayward said on CBS television's "Early Show" that his confidence level in the well-plugging effort remains at 60 to 70 percent.
BP, the largest oil and gas producer in the United States, began injecting mud into the well on Wednesday in an untested effort to end a spill that has surpassed the Exxon Valdez disaster since it started after an oil rig explosion on April 20 that killed 11 workers.
The maneuver, called a top kill, has worked on land but has never been tried in deep water. The Obama administration's point man on the disaster, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, said BP's work yesterday will tell if a cap can hold.
Allen told ABC's "Good Morning America" that the mud pumped into the well has pushed the oil down, but the challenge is going to be to keep enough pressure on the oil flow to put a cement plug in place. "The real question is, can we sustain it, and that'll be the critical issue going through the next 12 to 18 hours," Allen said.
Obama was expected to attend a briefing yesterday at the US Coast Guard Station in Grand Isle, Louisiana.
Obama made his second visit to the Gulf shore, where oil now washes ashore -- killing wildlife, fouling fragile wetlands and marring white sand beaches. On Thursday, Obama took responsibility for stopping the spewing well but admitted the US government doesn't have the technology or expertise for the job and must rely on BP.
Yesterday morning, BP PLC CEO Tony Hayward said it would be about 48 hours before it can be known if pumping heavy mud into the blown-out well is successful in stopping what is now the worst US oil spill.
Hayward said on CBS television's "Early Show" that his confidence level in the well-plugging effort remains at 60 to 70 percent.
BP, the largest oil and gas producer in the United States, began injecting mud into the well on Wednesday in an untested effort to end a spill that has surpassed the Exxon Valdez disaster since it started after an oil rig explosion on April 20 that killed 11 workers.
The maneuver, called a top kill, has worked on land but has never been tried in deep water. The Obama administration's point man on the disaster, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, said BP's work yesterday will tell if a cap can hold.
Allen told ABC's "Good Morning America" that the mud pumped into the well has pushed the oil down, but the challenge is going to be to keep enough pressure on the oil flow to put a cement plug in place. "The real question is, can we sustain it, and that'll be the critical issue going through the next 12 to 18 hours," Allen said.
Obama was expected to attend a briefing yesterday at the US Coast Guard Station in Grand Isle, Louisiana.
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