VENICE, La, June 5 (Reuters) - With its containment cap clamped over the ruptured wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico, BP Plc executives say they hope to be siphoning off the bulk of newly spilled oil from the deep-sea gusher within days.
But initial estimates of how much crude was being collected from the floor of the Gulf and siphoned safely to the surface amounted to a fraction of the oil that continued to belch from the runaway well in the first hours of the new system.
U.S. officials sounded a guarded note on Friday about BP's latest bid to gain control over the 46-day-old spill. President Barack Obama, under fire from critics who question his leadership in the crisis, paid his third visit to the Gulf Coast since the April 20 offshore oil rig blowout.
The spill is causing an ecological and economic disaster for the U.S. Gulf Coast. Meeting with state and local politicians and residents in Louisiana, the hardest hit state so far, Obama said of the new oil containment system, “it is way too early to be optimistic.” British energy giant BP, facing a U.S. criminal probe amid mounting lawsuits, dwindling investor confidence and growing questions about its credit-worthiness, delayed word on whether it would suspend an upcoming dividend payment to shareholders, as some U.S. politicians demanded.
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| A brown pelican coated in heavy oil tries to take flight June 4, on East Grand Terre Island, Louisiana. AFP |
Seeking to put an American face on its U.S. Gulf presence -- and to take some heat off the company's much-criticized British CEO Tony Hayward -- BP put American executive Robert Dudley in charge of its spill operations.
Both moves were revealed in a much-anticipated conference call with financial market analysts.
BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles told U.S. TV networks the containment cap placed on the well pipe a mile (1.6 km) below the ocean surface “should work” by capturing upward of 90 percent of the gushing crude. He said it would take a few days for the system to reach full performance.
Showing an uncharacteristic flash of anger, Obama warned BP against skimping on compensation it owes to fishermen, business owners and others whose way of life has been upended by the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
Black tide takes heavy toll
among Louisiana pelicans
FORT JACKSON, Louisiana, June 5, (AFP) -The animal rescuer opened the pelican's beak and slipped his hand inside to remove stubborn blobs of oil coating the mandible, a seemingly small step in the desperate fight against a massive disaster.
The rapidly spreading Gulf of Mexico oil slick has swallowed up as many birds in the past two days as in the six weeks that followed the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil platform.
On Thursday, 53 oiled-slicked birds arrive at the Fort Jackson rescue center, including 29 pelicans; 13 more followed by Friday afternoon.
Previously, it had received one to four birds per day since the the April 20 catastrophe that killed 11 workers.
It's now a race against time to remove the birds from the menacing oily grave.
Gusting winds sweeping the ocean have relentlessly pushed the blanket of crude into the lagoons. Queen Bess Island, a brown pelican sanctuary in Barataria Bay, was among the worst hit.
At least 60 birds have been trapped by the mess, including 41 brown pelicans, Louisiana's state bird. The birds were reintroduced into the bay in 1968, after coming close to extinction.
Once coated with oil, the birds can hardly move. Some struggle in vain, others stop breathing and simply die. |
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