Obama reassures as oil slick nears US coast

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is trying to reassure fishermen and others on the US Gulf Coast that the government is doing all it can as masses of oil from a pipeline rupture endanger fisheries, oyster beds and beaches.

"Your government will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to stop this crisis," Obama said during a visit on Sunday to southeastern Louisiana. "We're dealing with a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster."

BP Plc is ready to pay all legitimate claims tied to the oil spill caused by the accident at its Gulf of Mexico undersea well, Chief Executive Tony Hayward told National Public Radio on Monday. He said the London-based company fully accepted responsibility for the spill and would pay for the cleanup operation.

BP has not put an estimate on the likely costs of the spill.

Arial survey

Obama took a brief helicopter tour 15 miles (24 kilometers) east of Venice to view the kinds of marshlands and estuaries threatened by the spill. High winds prevented him from flying over the 30-mile (48-km) spill itself.

The leaking oil imperils not only the environment but an abundant fishing industry, which Obama called "the heartbeat of the region's economic life." In front of a cabin and RV park in Boothville, along Louisiana Highway 23, was a plywood sign pleading, "Obama Send Help!!!!"

"We're going to do everything in our power to protect our natural resources, compensate those who have been harmed, rebuild what has been damaged and help this region persevere like it has done so many times before," Obama said.

It appeared little could be done in the short term to stem the oil flow, which was also drifting toward the beaches of neighboring Mississippi and farther east along the Florida Panhandle.

BP Chairman Lamar McKay raised faint hope that the spill might be stopped more quickly by lowering a hastily manufactured dome to the ruptured wellhead a mile deep in the next few days, containing the oil and pumping it to the surface. Such a procedure has been used in some well blowouts.

Another potential hazard was a political one that depends on how the public judges the Obama administration's response. In 2005, President George W. Bush stumbled in dealing with Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf and left the impression of a president distant from immense suffering. His presidency never recovered.

An investigation is under way into the cause of the April 20 well explosion and, depending on its outcome, questions may be raised about whether federal regulation of offshore rigs operating in extremely deep waters is sufficient.

In reality, oil companies and the government lack the technology to prevent the damage from a well gushing oil, killing wildlife and tainting a delicate ecosystem.

Admiral Thad Allen, the Coast Guard commandant, said the volume of spewing oil could climb to 100,000 barrels a day in the event of a total wellhead failure, a much greater breach than is believed to exist now.

In Teheran, an Iranian state company offered on Monday to help in preventing a vast oil slick that is moving towards the coast of the United States, the Islamic Republic's old foe, from causing an "ecological disaster". Haidar Bahmani, managing director of the National Iranian Drilling Company, said his firm was ready to provide assistance in fighting the spill.

Associated Press

(China Daily 05/04/2010 page12)