HOUSTON/WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Waves and wind spawned by Hurricane Alex disrupted cleanup efforts from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill yesterday while a senior U.S. official said a relief well intended to plug BP Plc’s gushing deep-sea well remained weeks from completion.
In Washington, lawmakers took a step toward making oil companies face unlimited liabilities from offshore spills like the one sullying the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The relief well, one of two being drilled, will still take several weeks to reach the spewing oil pipe, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told U.S. lawmakers. The relief wells are intended to intersect and then plug the ruptured deep-sea well. The Interior Department, focused on the BP spill, announced it was postponing until later this year planned public hearings on President Barack Obama’s proposal — announced before the BP spill began on April 20 — to expand offshore oil drilling.
Rough weather associated with Alex, the season’s first Atlantic hurricane, threatened to push more oil-polluted water onto U.S. shores and delayed BP’s plans to boost oil containment capacity at its leaking well.
BP has been siphoning some oil from the spewing well. An unknown amount continues to spurt into the sea.
Alex strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane over the Gulf, with sustained winds near 100 miles (155 km) per hour, and was due to hit northeastern Mexico near the border with Texas later yesterday, the National Hurricane Center said.
