Crunch time … a video released by BP shows equipment being used to try to plug the gushing oilwell in the Gulf of Mexico.
WASHINGTON: Engineers have stopped the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government’s top oil spill commander, US Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, said yesterday.
The “top kill” effort, launched the day before by industry and government engineers, had pumped enough drilling fluid to block all oil and gas from the well, Admiral Allen said. The pressure from the well was very low, but persisted, he said.
Barack Obama has been under political pressure over the disaster with influential Democrats, together with exasperated coastal officials, demanding that Washington take charge of efforts to stop the leak as well as the multibillion-dollar clean-up.
As the oil that gushed freely for 37 days, Louisiana officials pleaded with the administration to intensify its involvement.
“This is an embarrassment to our country,” said Bill Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, the municipality south-west of New Orleans that is home to one of America’s biggest fishing communities and which is taking the brunt of the spill.
Choking with emotion, he accused the Coast Guard and the well operator, BP, of failing to protect Louisiana’s world-significant coastal marshlands.
Thick oily residue up to a metre deep has inundated the area within more than 120 kilometres of spoilt coastline, and continues to penetrate saturated booms.
