BP prepares oil leak cap as anger grows along Louisiana coast

The latest attempt to stop the month-long oil leakage from a damaged offshore rig has run into more delays, and anger is mounting as oil continues to wash up on the coast of the state of Louisiana in the southern United States. The plan by BP, which leased the damaged rig, to cap the leak this weekend has been delayed, and may not start until Tuesday. 

Reuters

BP has tried one tactic after another to stop the leak from the ruptured pipe some 1,500 metres under the water in the Gulf of Mexico, to no avail. It will take at least two months to complete drilling of relief wells, so hopes now are pinned on a so-called “top kill” operation, an attempt to plug the leak by injecting heavy fluids into the well, and permanently capping it with cement.

The operation was initially planned for the weekend, but is now not expected to start until at least Tuesday.

Crews used submarine robots to position equipment Saturday, as skimmers on the surface continued to try to contain the oil, which has spread across the Gulf and has started to wash ashore in Louisiana.

More than 23 million litres of oil has poured out of the leak since the BP-operated rig sank after an explosion on 22 April, though this is the low estimate. BP has been accused of downplaying the catastrophe.

The government is being accused of a lack of oversight over offshore drilling. President Barack Obama announced Saturday that he was appointing a bipartisan presidential commission to investigate how to avoid and deal with future oil spills.

In his weekly radio address he said the "disaster was a breakdown of responsibility on the part of BP and perhaps others, including Transocean and Halliburton,” the operator and builder of the rig.

He pointed to the "cozy relationship between oil and gas companies and agencies that regulate them", and gave the commission six months to come up with recommendations.