Tag: Afternoon Edition

The news came as US President Barack Obama was heading back to the stricken Gulf of Mexico region for his third visit since an explosion tore through the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig more than six weeks ago.

Remote-controlled submarines grappled the cap into place over a sawn-off riser pipe nearly a mile (1.6 kilometers) below the surface late Thursday — in the latest of several attempts to contain the oil belching into the Gulf.

After a diamond-blade saw got stuck in the pipe lying a mile down on the sea bed, the British energy giant was forced to use rougher means to get the job done.

“The other saw that we attempted to use was not successful in getting the internal drill pipe so we replaced it with the shears, which don’t have as clean a cut, but we do have a cut now,” Admiral Thad Allen told reporters.

Forecasters said it was virtually certain Florida’s panhandle, a major draw for tourists from around the world, would be hit by the spill this week.

The latest official projections from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) show the slick to be about seven miles (11 kilometers) off the state’s shores, a Florida official told AFP.

“If our laws were broken leading to this death and destruction, my solemn pledge is that we will bring those responsible to justice on behalf of the victims of this catastrophe and the people of the Gulf region,” Obama vowed.

Calling it the “greatest environmental disaster of its kind in our history,” Obama said the government had an “obligation” to find out what caused an explosion on the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20.

Hours after the British oil giant acknowledged failure in its “top kill” attempt to plug the underwater well, company officials said it could take a week to implement the next bid — placing a cap over the leak.

“Right now we are going to a containment operation,” BP Managing Director Bob Dudley told CNN’s “State of the Union” program of the latest attempt to deal with the ruptured well nearly a mile (1,600 meters) under water.

A day after he pledged to take responsibility for stopping and cleaning up the disastrous spill, Obama was in the region for his second visit to assess the situation.

Meanwhile, a US official cited progress in BP’s efforts to plug the leak, but the energy giant warned it would take two days to determine the measure’s success.

“They’ve been able to stabilize the wellhead, they’re pumping mud down it. They’ve stopped the hydrocarbons from coming up,” said Coast Guard chief Thad Allen, who is coordinating the US government’s battle against the oil spill.

He told local radio WWL First News that BP “had some success overnight” but cautioned the British energy giant was “in a period of kind of wait and see right now where they see how the well stabilizes.”

Shortly after winning final approval from US officials for the procedure to go ahead, the British energy giant announced the maneuver dubbed a “top kill” had begun at 1800 GMT.

But after several previous failed attempts to cap the oil, BP boss Tony Hayward has already downplayed hopes of success, cautioning such a procedure has never been tried before at such depth and against such pressure.

BP’s top officer downplayed the likelihood that the desperate effort will succeed in actually sealing the pipe, which is spewing hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude into the Gulf each day.

“If it was on land we would have a very high confidence of success, but… we need to be realistic about the issues around operating in a mile of water,” BP CEO Tony Hayward told reporters on Monday.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, pleading for sand barriers to be constructed to protect the coast, recounted grim tales of birds unable to fly because their feathers were fused together by oil.

“The Brown Pelican, our state bird. Several months from being removed from the endangered species list,” Jindal implored at a press conference alongside top US government officials in the small town of Galliano.

With some of the worst fears of environmental disaster being realized in the marshlands of the Mississippi Delta, BP was also forced to concede it had underestimated the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.

The British energy giant had always maintained only 5,000 barrels — or 210,000 gallons — of crude was gushing each day from a pipe ruptured when its Deepwater Horizon rig exploded one month ago and sank.