US opens criminal investigation into oil spill

BP, in it for the long haul, pitches tents for oil cleanup
Port Fourchon, Louisiana (AFP) June 1, 2010 - In a show of just how long it expects to spend capping the massive Gulf of Mexico spill, BP is pitching tents for cleanup teams bracing for the long haul, with no end in sight to their efforts.

In the heart of Port Fourchon, a shipyard filled with the stench of belching boat chimneys and nearby refineries, huge white tents are being erected to house workers. These are the same shelters usually deployed to house disaster refugees.

In this apocalyptic landscape, in the middle of one of America's biggest oil ports, BP recruits will rest after long days spent at sea trying to pump the gushing crude or sifting through soiled coasts to remove the oily sludge washed up from the ruptured underwater well some 50 miles (80 kilometers) offshore.

As part of BP's effort to accommodate some 2,200 of the more than 20,000 workers hired to clean up the spill, each of the four tents is filled with 42 bunkbeds. Nearby, a huge barge houses 60 stacked steel boxes resembling large shipping containers that each hold 12 beds.

This floating hotel, or flotel, and the tent city are the pride of BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles, who toured the site Tuesday with reporters.

"This can save up to two hours per day each direction. That's four hours more per day on the beach cleaning the oil slick. When the oil arrives, we try to get as many people as possible to get it off the ground," Suttles said at the shipyard surrounded by vulnerable marshes and beaches.

"This is part of our plan: get more people on the front line, so we minimize the impact on the environment and also on people's lives."

The British oil giant, which installed the tents and containers in less than a week, hopes to have them filled by Wednesday.

BP has hired a growing contingent of boaters and fishermen who saw their livelihoods threatened or destroyed by the oil spill.

On the neighboring beach of Grand Isle, results of the cleanup are plain to see: not a single tar ball can be seen and the sand is streaked with lines left by workers.

The water seems clear and only a few platforms visible on the horizon hint at the tragedy that unraveled here six weeks ago when a powerful explosion ripped through the Deepwater Horizon rig, setting it ablaze and eventually sinking it, unleashing the catastrophic spill.

But with BP repeatedly trying and failing to cap the spill, there is "no timeframe" for just how long the cleanup effort will last, said Forest Jackson, head of Cottonwood Disaster Recovery, a firm contracted to pitch the tents.

Suttles says BP could cap the rig's fractured pipe as early as Wednesday through its latest operation but the move risks unleashing an even larger torrent of oil and the crude is expected to continue spewing out into the Gulf waters until August, when a relief well is completed.

It remains uncertain whether workers will accept living in the new accommodations: in addition to the lack of privacy, the deafening noise of air conditioners and the stench of oil, the site surrounded by metal barriers has all the look of a prisoner camp.

A uniformed guard screens all visitors at the entrance to the complex, which includes a large mess hall for 360 people and another big top tent for workers to relax.

The tents will also have to be hurricane-proof, with the official hurricane season now underway.

In Port Fourchon, the tents can resist winds of up to 70 miles (110 km) per hour, and more are being built to resist winds twice as powerful, in line with Category Four hurricanes, Jackson said.

"It's easier than Katrina," added Jackson, who assisted in response efforts after the massive hurricane that devastated the region five years ago.

"Here, the infrastructure is still in place: there are roads, electricity."

by Staff Writers
New Orleans, Louisiana (AFP) June 1, 2010
US authorities said Tuesday they opened a criminal probe into the nation's worst ever oil spill as BP voiced hopes of capping the six-week-old Gulf of Mexico leak soon.

The scope of the disaster widened as authorities closed more water in the Gulf of Mexico to fishing and said areas near the coasts of Alabama and Mississippi were fouled.

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration said it was expanding its fishing ban "to capture portions of the slick moving into waters off eastern Alabama and the western tip of the Florida panhandle, as well as some large patches of sheen moving onto the west Florida shelf and southward to Cuban waters."

The action leaves 68 percent of waters open.

In New Orleans, Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters his office "will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law anyone who has violated the law."

Holder said the criminal probe began "some weeks ago" but declined to elaborate on what kind of charges could be brought and against whom.

The top US law enforcement official was speaking after touring the region to witness the damage caused by the spill, triggered when an explosion ripped through the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20, sinking it two days later.

"What we saw this morning was oil for miles and miles. Oil that we know has already affected plant and animal life along the coast, and has impacted the lives and livelihoods of all too many in this region," he said.

US President Barack Obama also threatened to take legal action against those to blame, saying the government had an "obligation" to determine the cause of the "greatest environmental disaster of its kind in our history."

"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.

Meanwhile shares in the British energy giant plunged Tuesday, losing 13 percent and wiping off 12 billion pounds (17.6 billion dollars) off its market value, in a reaction to the latest failure to stem the oil disaster.

BP's chief operating officer Doug Suttles said the company now hoped to cap the rig's fractured pipe on Wednesday, thanks to a new operation launched Tuesday.

"If everything goes well, within the next 24 hours, we could have this contained," Suttles said in Louisiana.

But when asked later by Fox News about whether BP had broken any laws, Suttles replied: "I have no idea."

At congressional hearings last month, BP traded blame for the disaster with rig owner Transocean and oil services group Halliburton, which was responsible for the well's cement casing.

The latest operation -- dubbed a lower marine riser pipe -- would cut off the jagged edges of the leaking pipe and seal it with a tight cap. A tube would then siphon most of the oil to a ship on the surface.

In cutting the riser pipe, however, BP runs the risk of unleashing an even larger torrent of oil.

If it works, BP engineers plan to lower another dome to capture a second flow of oil through a valve known as the blowout preventer, BP's managing director Bob Dudley said.

The official start of the hurricane season on Tuesday worsened the outlook for residents in Louisiana and the neighboring states of Alabama and Mississippi, amid warnings the 2010 storm season will be more than active than usual, with up to 14 hurricanes.

Two deep relief wells BP is drilling into the seabed to plug the leak permanently will not be ready until August.

An estimated 12,000 to 19,00 barrels of crude have been belching daily into Gulf waters since the rig explosion.

Eleven workers were killed, and more than 20 million gallons of oil are estimated to have flooded into the Gulf.

BP has tried -- and failed -- several times in the past six weeks to cap the leak, triggering mounting anger as oil washes up on the Gulf shores, threatening rare animal and plant life, as well as local livelihoods.

US officials said 29 dead dolphins and 227 sea turtles have been collected in the area so far -- above average for this time of year -- with at least one of each species showing visible signs of oil.

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Obama promising strong oil spill response
Washington (UPI) Jun 1, 2010
U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday made his strongest statement to date that those responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will be held legally accountable if a new commission investigating the disaster finds wrongdoing. Speaking from the White House Rose Garden after his first meeting with national commission co-chairmen Robert Graham, who was Florida's governor before he ... read more

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