WASHINGTON/VENICE, La., (Reuters) – BP Plc said its high-stakes bid to plug a gushing Gulf of Mexico oil well was proceeding to plan yesterday, while U.S. President Barack Obama fended off criticism he has been too slow to respond to the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
Nearly 40 days into the disaster, the BP oil leak has now eclipsed the worst previous spill, the Exxon Valdez wreck on the Alaska coast in 1989, according to new U.S. government estimates of the amount of oil spewing into the Gulf.
BP’s “top kill” procedure launched on Wednesday could choke off the well a mile (1.6 km) down on the sea floor, but BP said it needs another 24 hours or longer to know the outcome.
A day before he visits the Gulf for the second time, Obama vowed to hold BP accountable, saying was “angry and frustrated” at the London-based company’s failure to plug the leak.
“In case you’re wondering who’s responsible, I take responsibility,” he told a White House news conference. “It is my job to make sure everything is done to shut this down.”
He announced a six-month extension of a moratorium on permits for new deepwater oil drilling while a commission investigates the causes of the disaster, and ordered 33 deepwater exploratory wells in the Gulf of Mexico to suspend work while they meet new safety requirements.
The move is a setback to offshore exploration and a potential blow to Obama’s efforts to rejig U.S. energy policy.
The political fallout from the spill also claimed its highest-profile victim as the head of the government agency that oversees offshore oil drilling resigned.
All eyes are on the top kill, the pumping of heavy fluid into the well to stop the gusher before capping it with cement. BP stopped pumping to analyze data, but resumed later Thursday, said BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles.
